THE HAGUE, Netherlands—6 October 2020—The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) transmitted yesterday to the Federal Republic of Germany the report of the OPCW’s mission to provide requested technical assistance in regard to the poisoning of Mr Alexei Navalny, on 20 August 2020.
The results of the analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team and shared with the Federal Republic of Germany confirm that the biomarkers of the cholinesterase inhibitor found in Mr Navalny’s blood and urine samples have similar structural characteristics as the toxic chemicals belonging to schedules 1.A.14 and 1.A.15 that were added to the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention during the Twenty-Fourth Session of the Conference of the States Parties in November 2019. This cholinesterase inhibitor is not listed in the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention.
The Permanent Representation of Germany to the OPCW requested that the Technical Secretariat share the summary of this report with all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention and make it publicly available.
The Director-General, H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, thanked the OPCW designated laboratories that supported the technical assistance request for their swift analysis. He further considered that these results constitute a matter of grave concern. States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention have declared the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances as reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community. It is therefore important now for States Parties to uphold the norm they have decided to adhere to more than 25 years ago. He reaffirmed the Secretariat’s readiness to continue assisting them through independent expertise.
