OREANDA-NEWS. German Chancellor Angela Merkel secretly visited Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny while he was in Berlin clinic Charite, where he was taken after being poisoned with a chemical warfare agent. The magazine Spiegel wrote about this without specifying the source of the information.

“The Chancellor, in complete secrecy, visited the Russian opposition politician while he was lying in a hospital bed in the Berlin clinic Charite,” the publication says.

It is noted that “with such an unusual gesture” Merkel showed the solidarity of the German government with Navalny. A secret visit to the Russian oppositionist is another sign that Berlin wants to learn what happened, the authors of the article add. “The fact that the Chancellor visited the opposition politician should be the key for the Russian government to ensure that Berlin will not yield in this matter and find out the truth,” Der Spiegel writes.

The publication does not specify when Merkel visited Navalny, whether the oppositionist was conscious at the same time and whether they discussed anything.