Russian diplomat says accusations of poisoning Navalny are 'funny to read'

A top Russian diplomat on Wednesday brushed aside accusations that top officials from his country orchestrated the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the West has assumed guilt over Moscow because of its refusal to respond to the accusations.

He also said "any reasonable person would see such an approach as flawed."

"All this news is funny to read, but it says only one thing – or rather the manner in which this news is presented says only one thing – that our Western partners do not have any ethical standards and lack skill in normal diplomatic work, and [have an] unwillingness to comply with the international legal norms when it comes to finding the facts," Lavrov said at a news conference during a trip to Croatia.

Navalny, 44, became extremely ill on a domestic Russian flight in August and was originally taken to a Russian hospital where doctors claimed there was no evidence of poisoning.

After transferring to a German hospital in a coma and nearly a month-long battle in intensive care, blood samples revealed that he was poisoned with a Novichok agent, a binary chemical weapon developed by Russia and the Soviet Union. 

The politician and anti-corruption activist has always been very vocal about his aversion toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has resulted in much of the finger-pointing at Moscow.

"We are already used to the fact that the United States and other Western countries simply announce in the media yet another set of accusations against Russia, be it hackers, or some kind of a sensation about the double or even triple poisoning of Navalny," Lavrov also said.

On Monday, CNN and the investigative group Bellingcat published their findings that indicated Russia’s Federal Security Service created an elite team specializing in nerve agents that followed Navalny for years.

“I am totally sure that Putin was aware,” Navalny told CNN on Tuesday.