Germany says nerve agent Novichok found in Russia’s Navalny

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says tests performed on samples taken from Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny showed the presence of the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

Navalny is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics. He fell into a coma on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Aug 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing. He was later transferred to Berlin’s Charite hospital, where doctors last week said there were indications that he had been poisoned.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said Wednesday that a special German military laboratory found proof of “a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.”