Based on these new findings, the Federal Government this afternoon invited the Russian Ambassador to the Federal Foreign Office again for urgent talks.

He was informed once more in no uncertain terms of the Federal Government’s call to fully investigate the background to this now irrefutable poisoning of Alexei Navalny in a completely transparent manner.

We now know that an attack with a chemical nerve gas has been carried out. This makes it all the more urgent that Russia investigates who is responsible and brings the perpetrators to justice.

We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. We will now also brief our partners in the European Union and NATO immediately using the appropriate channels and update them on the new findings.

We will talk to them in the days to come about how we in Europe are to react appropriately. We will also make such decisions also based on how Russia now behaves.

In addition, we will forward the results of the toxicological test to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. After all, the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits all use of chemical weapons.

We also moved quickly to inform the parliamentary groups of the German Bundestag.

Russia itself should have a serious interest in good relations with its neighbours in Europe. At the very latest now, the time has come to make a decisive contribution to this end.

We continue to hope that Alexei Navalny will make a full and swift recovery.