Kremlin sees no grounds to launch criminal probe into Navalny’s condition

The Kremlin so far sees no grounds to launch a criminal probe into the situation around opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"First, it is necessary to identify the substance, to find out what caused his condition. It means there should be grounds for an investigation. So far, all we can say is that the patient is in a coma," he said.

If the fact of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny's poisoning with some definite substance is established, there will be a cause for investigation, Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

"If the substance is established and if it is established that this is poisoning, then, of course, this will be a cause for investigation," he said.

"Medics are addressing this matter, first Russian doctors and then German doctors. They are conducting phase one of this investigation, trying to find out what has caused the condition the patient is in now. So far, regrettably, to no avail," he said.

When asked to comment on the decision to administer atropine after it was found out that the patient had low levels of cholinesterase, the Kremlin spokesman noted that it was purely medical information. "We simply called and asked the doctor what it means at all. None of us knows. An ordinary man has no idea of cholinesterase. I knew nothing about that until yesterday," he confessed.