The writer is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
The poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, has brought Russian relations with western countries to a perilous impasse.
After doctors in Berlin identified the substance used as a military-grade nerve agent of the novichok group, German chancellor Angela Merkel issued a sharp condemnation: Mr Navalny was “meant to be silenced”, she said, adding: “this raises very difficult questions that only the Russian government can answer, and must answer”.
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