Associates of ‘poisoned’ opposition figure Navalny’s team could face 7 years in prison for taking evidence out of Russia

Close aides of Alexey Navalny could end up in prison for removing evidence from Russia rather than reporting it to local investigators. They have admitted to exporting a water bottle with traces of a toxic substance to Germany.

Lawyer Alexander Gribakov explained that those who are deemed responsible for taking the bottle abroad could face up to seven years in prison “if they knew that the bottle contained remnants of a toxic substance.”

“It’s a strange situation when the most important evidence was exported outside our country,” he said.

On Thursday, a post on Navalny’s official Instagram page detailed how his supporters checked his hotel room after they learned of his poisoning. The published video shows them “recording, describing, and packing” everything found in the room.

“A decision was made to take everything that could hypothetically be useful for the investigation, and pass it to the doctors in Germany,” the post reads.

Also on Thursday, Russian publication Proekt reported that the bottle could have been taken to Germany by Navalny’s associate Maria Pevchikh, a British resident. Russian police claim she fled the country after refusing to answer their questions.

On August 20, Navalny was hospitalized in the Siberian city of Omsk after he became ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. After an emergency landing, local doctors diagnosed him with a metabolic disorder. Two days later, after a request from his family and associates, the activist was flown to Berlin for treatment at the city’s Charité clinic. After over a week, German authorities announced that the anti-corruption activist was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents. The medical team in Omsk denies that any poison was found in Navalny’s body.

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