Berlin struggles to answer RT's question on fate of mysterious Navalny aide who left Russia for Germany without being questioned

When asked by RT, on Monday, German government representatives failed to explain the mystery surrounding an Alexey Navalny's associate who was with him at the time of his alleged poisoning and went to Germany shortly afterwards.

During a press conference, officials failed to provide any actual answer about the woman identified by Russian authorities as 'Marina Pevchikh.'

“I can’t tell you anything about this. We must not forget that an attempt was made on the life of Mr Navalny with the use of a poisonous substance. But I can’t tell you anything about the location of an individual,” Government spokesman Steffen Seibert stated.

The associate of the Kremlin critic was reportedly together with Navalny in Tomsk before his alleged poisoning. Unlike all other individuals who interacted with him on that day, she did not cooperate with Russian investigators and quickly left the country for Germany.

Pevchikh has spoken to Meduza, a Western-funded, Latvia-based, Russian language news site, claiming she was never approached by the police. She also said her name is actually Maria, not ‘Marina’.

German officials have also failed to explain how a Russian citizen managed to obtain a permit for entering the country so fast, especially with Covid-19 restrictions supposedly in place.. Still, little is actually known about Pevchikh, who is believed to hold a UK residence permit – or even citizenship. Moreover, only a few photos of her exist, despite her close association and repeated trips alongside Navalny, who is a very public figure.

The saga of the Navalny ‘poisoning’ kicked off on August 20, when he fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. After an emergency landing in Omsk, another Siberian city 2,000 km east of the Russian capital, he was taken to a local hospital in an unresponsive condition.

The opposition figure was flown to Berlin’s Charité clinic two days later, where he is currently being treated. While Russian doctors say they found no traces of toxic substances in samples collected from Navalny, their German counterparts have claimed he was poisoned with a variant of the infamous nerve agent family ‘Novichok’. The Creators of that family of toxic substances have already said his symptoms did not correspond with exposure to the agent, however.

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