The ECHR ordered the Russian Federation to pay Navalny compensation for the poor investigation of the poisoning

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Russia to pay moral compensation to oppositionist Alexei Navalny in the amount of €40,000. The court considered that the Russian authorities had not properly investigated the possible poisoning of the politician in August 2020. The court’s decision states that the investigation did not take into account the political motives of the poisoning and the possible use of banned chemical weapons. Russia has not been complying with the decisions of the ECtHR since March 2022.

“The court ruled that, in fact, there was a risk of a serious imminent threat to Navalny’s life under suspicious circumstances, which automatically obligated the state to conduct an effective investigation in accordance with Article 2 (of the convention),” the statement reads. decision court.

The ECtHR recognized that the investigation into the circumstances of the poisoning, initiated by the Russian authorities, was not accessible for verification, which made it impossible to “identify and, if necessary, punish those responsible.” The ECHR considered that it was necessary to investigate the possible involvement of representatives of the state in the poisoning of the politician. The court, referring to its previous decision, explained this by the fact that Alexei Navalny was under the supervision of special services.

The decision of the ECHR states that the fact of the possible use of banned chemical weapons in his poisoning was to become a priority area of ​​the investigation. In this paragraph, the court referred to the decision of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, who found traces of a poisonous substance in samples from the body of an oppositionist. “The development and use of such chemicals requires time, skill and a level of organization that is unlikely to be achieved by individuals not associated with government agencies,” the decision says.

Politician Alexei Navalny was hospitalized in August 2020 in Omsk. Later, Alexei Navalny was transported by plane to Germany. The German government reported, citing military doctors, that the oppositionist was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of poisonous warfare agents. Later, German authorities said that the conclusions of German experts were confirmed by laboratories in Sweden and France.

The Russian side has repeatedly reproached the German authorities for not providing, at Russia’s request, the results of the analyzes of Alexei Navalny, as well as the expert opinion on the reasons for his poisoning.

In December 2020, journalists from several publications, including CNN and Der Spiegel, published an investigation in which eight FSB officers were identified as possible poisoners of the politician. The journalists’ material said that employees of the FSB Institute of Forensic Science had been following Alexei Navalny since 2017 and first tried to poison him in June 2020. The FSB called statements about the involvement of employees in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and “a planned provocation aimed at discrediting the FSB and its employees.”

In March 2022, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe. In the summer of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that allows not to comply with the decisions of the ECtHR, issued after March 15, 2022.

On February 2, 2021, Alexei Navalny’s suspended sentence in the case of theft from Yves Rocher was replaced with a real one. The court considered that the politician had violated the conditions of the probationary period, according to which he had to report to the inspection (at that time the oppositionist was being treated abroad for the consequences of poisoning). He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. In March 2022, he was sentenced to nine years in prison in a case of fraud and contempt of court.

Read more about the case in the material “Kommersant” “European Court found no policy in Yves Rocher case“.

Anastasia Larina