Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies Warsaw-Berlin phone conversation about Navalny

7 September 2020, 15:42 | TASS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland building.
Source: © Grand Warszawski / Shutterstock / FOTODOM

Earlier, President of Belarus Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated that the intelligence service had intercepted the conversation, from which it follows that the allegation regarding the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with a Novichok-type substance is based on falsification.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland has denied information about a telephone conversation between callers in Warsaw and Berlin regarding the falsification of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. This was announced on Monday by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to a request from a TASS correspondent.

“We refute the Belarusian reports of an alleged telephone conversation between Warsaw and Berlin, in which the authorities of the two countries allegedly admitted that Alexei Navalny was not poisoned,” the message says.

“We accept the statement of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German government that Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a chemical warfare agent from the so-called Novichok group,” the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted, expressing great concern regarding this information.

“Like the German government, we condemn this shameful act. We believe that the culprits of the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny should be brought to justice,” the Ministry stated.

Allegations of falsification

On Thursday, while hosting Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Minsk, President of Belarus Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated that Belarusian electronic intelligence (ELINT) had intercepted a conversation between Warsaw and Berlin, from which it follows that the allegation of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with a Novichok-type substance is based on falsification. The president did not specify who was involved in the conversation. Later on the same day, as the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, stated on Friday, the materials of the Belarusian intelligence service were handed over to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). According to Peskov, at present “they are being analysed by the special services”. The Federal Cabinet of Germany called Lukashenka’s statement untrue. On Friday evening, a recording of the conversation about the Navalny incident was published by the Belarusian state TV channel ONT.