Russia and Putin · First term · № 63
Said the U.S. had no proof yet that Navalny was poisoned after Germany and NATO said he was
“So I don't know exactly what happened. I think it's tragic. It's terrible. It shouldn't happen. We haven't had any proof yet, but I will take a look.”
- Said
- , News conference, White House
- Subject
- Navalny poisoning
- Type
- Intelligence and security
- Topic
- Foreign policy
- Era
- First term
What happened
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny fell ill on a flight in Siberia in August 2020 and was evacuated to Germany, which said he had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. On September 4 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there was "proof beyond doubt," and the State Department said Deputy Secretary Stephen Biegun had told Russia's ambassador that use of the chemical weapon would violate the Chemical Weapons Convention. Trump said the same day that the United States had not seen proof and that reporters should be asking about China more than Russia; asked whether he doubted Germany's findings, he said he did not. On September 21, asked who he thought poisoned Navalny, he said, "We'll talk about that at another time." The European Union sanctioned six senior Russian officials over the poisoning on October 15, 2020.