The German government has announced that tests on blood samples taken from Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny showed the presence of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.
The announcement conjured up memories of other Kremlin foes who have fallen victim to toxic attacks in the Vladimir Putin era and previously.
Earlier, German doctors treating the Kremlin critic had been less precise, saying that the specific poison that felled Mr. Navalny remained unknown but that they had determined poisoning by “cholinesterase inhibitors” – toxic substances that can be found in several drugs and pesticides and, more ominously, in deadly nerve agents such as Novichok, sarin and soman.