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Russia slams ‘unacceptable’ US claims over Navalny

Russia condemns a US statement that senior Russian officials may have been behind the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The 44-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner fell ill last month after boarding a plane and was treated in Siberia before medical evacuation to Germany, where doctors said he was poisoned.

“We consider unacceptable any direct or indirect suggestions that Russian officials were involved in this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says, responding to claims made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that it was likely senior Russian officials ordered the poisoning of the top Kremlin critic with Novichok nerve agent.

“I think people all around the world see this kind of activity for what it is,” Pompeo said in a radio interview on Wednesday.

Peskov says that Russia had “an interest in finding the reasons for what happened” to Navalny.

— AFP