Navalny asks for his clothes back as no official probe into poisoning launched in Russia

Alexei Navalny said on Saturday that he can now walk with a "tremble"

Credit: Handout/AFP

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader who was in a medically induced coma for weeks, has asked authorities to return belongings and clothes that were seized from him as no official inquiry has been launched into his poisoning in Russia.

Mr Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, fell suddenly ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow last month and spent weeks on a ventilator in a coma before regaining consciousness earlier this month.

Several European laboratories independently confirmed that he had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok that was previously used in the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

Russian officials have launched a preliminary investigation but one month after Mr Navalny was poisoned no criminal investigation has been started.

The opposition leader’s team revealed last week that they managed to retrieve water bottles from his hotel room shortly after he fell sick on the plane and that traces of Novichok were found on one of those bottles.

The clothes that Mr Navalny wore when he fell ill were seized by authorities before his medical evacuation to Germany.

Mr Navalny in a blog post on Monday slammed the Russian government for refusing to investigate his poisoning.

“I get a feeling as if I slipped in a supermarket and broke a leg instead of falling into a coma on a plane,” he said.

Mr Navalny, a lawyer, said that authorities are obliged to return his clothes that might contain traces of the poison now that the one-month deadline for opening a criminal probe has passed.

“Thirty days of the preliminary investigation have been used to hide this important piece of evidence,” he said.

“My clothes are an important piece of evidence given the fact that Novichok was found on my body and that contamination by touch is quite possible.

I demand that my clothes be packed in a plastic bag and returned to me.”

The 44-year old opposition leader said on Saturday that he is now being able to work with a “tremble” but added that simple tasks are still a challenge for him.

Doctors have said his condition is improving but said it was too early to rule out long-term damage to his health.