A controversial French pundit reckons the true culprits behind Alexey Navaly’s poisoning work for the US Central Intelligence Agency, adding that their footprints are in Belarus too, triggering uproar from French politicians.
German military scientists claim that Navalny, a protest leader in Russia, was poisoned by a potent military-grade nerve agent last month. The German government claims to have evidence of Kremlin involvement in his poisoning, but has so far failed to provide this evidence to Moscow. Nevertheless, German foreign minister Heiko Maas has threatened Russia with sanctions over the poisoning, while his G7 colleagues have condemned the “confirmed poisoning” in “strongest terms.”
However, prominent French essayist Eric Zemmour sees things differently. Speaking as a frequent guest on the Cnews channel on Wednesday night, he blamed the US Central Intelligence Agency for Navanly’s poisoning.
“I’m trying to understand, and there are things that confuse me,” he said. “If Putin gave the order to poison this political opponent, then why did Russian doctors save his life and transport him to Germany for treatment by the Germans, at the risk of exposing the crime? This is strange.”
The CIA certainly has a long and storied history of assassination attempts on its enemies, and carried out botched poisonings on Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Congolese nationalist Patrice Lumumba during the Cold War. According to Zemmour, the agency could be up to its old tricks again.
“This story took place at a time when the Americans are putting pressure on the Germans to give up Nord Stream 2,” he remarked, referring to a natural gas pipeline that will supply Germany with cheap Russian gas once operational. That Navalny’s poisoning and treatment in Germany would coincide with American opposition to this project is “an incredible chance,” Zemmour said.
The US is opposing the $10 billion project, while trying to boost its own liquefied natural gas shipments to Europe. However, the higher transit costs of the American gas have thus far proven a sticking point for Germany and other EU nations.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel initially said that Navalny’s poisoning would not deter her from pressing ahead with Nord Stream 2, yet the sentiment in Berlin appears to be changing. After dozens of EU MEPs circulated a letter calling for a halt to the project, Maas said this week that he hopes “the Russians don’t force us to change our stance on Nord Stream 2.” Despite this statement, Maas admitted that he has not yet passed the information relevant to the case to Moscow.
In Washington, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this summer that the US would “do everything” it could to stop the pipeline from going ahead. He did not, however, mention involving the CIA.
Yet to Zemmour, the hidden hand of the CIA is behind more than just Navalny’s poisoning. The French contrarian accused the agency of stoking anti-government protests in Belarus, where opposition leaders say President Alexander Lukashenko’s recent re-election was fraudulent. “As for Belarus, I can clearly see the CIA behind what is happening, because this is what they have been doing for ten years,” he said. “Whenever there is an ‘Orange Revolution’, Americans, Soros NGOs and American special services are behind it as if by accident.”
Lukashenko himself would certainly agree, and has accused Washington and its allies of attempting to kickstart a Ukraine-style “color revolution” to oust him from power. France’s establishment, on the other hand, was mortified by Zemmour’s claims.
“I thought I was on Russia Today,” Nathalie Loiseau, an MEP from French President Emmanuel Macron’s party, exclaimed, shocked that opinions like Zemmour’s could be expressed on French television.
French parliamentarian Frederic Petit said that he was “flabbergasted to hear Eric Zemmour on a French channel pouring the same propaganda (conspiracy) served by the Lukashenko regime and Russia.”
Germany has handed over Navalny’s test results to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, but has made no more information about them public.
Navany is still in hospital in Berlin, and emerged on Monday from a medically-induced coma.
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