French and Swedish specialist labs confirmed that the poisoned Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, the German government said.

Berlin previously confirmed that the Russian opposition leader had been targeted with Novichok after a toxicology test in Germany.

“We renew our call for Russia to explain these events. We are in close consultation with our European partners on further steps… Samples taken from the Russian dissident had also been sent to the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in The Hague for testing. Independently of the OPCW’s investigations, three laboratories have now independently identified a military nerve agent as the cause of Navalny’s poisoning”, - German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.