The Cabinet of Ministers of Germany confirmed that Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Alexei Navalny. This is reported by TASS.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert confirmed the meeting. At the same time, he refused to consider it a secret, since the Cabinet of Ministers in principle does not report on Merkel’s private meetings. Seibert also noted that the conversation was “confidential.”

Earlier, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported on Merkel’s visit to Navalny in hospital. The publication said that this was how the Chancellor showed her solidarity with the Russian and readiness to “act to the end” in the investigation of what happened to him. According to journalists, Merkel receives daily reports on Navalny’s condition.

Navalny felt ill on August 20 during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, the plane was urgently landed in Omsk. The Russian fell into a coma and spent several days in a city hospital, after which he was transported to Berlin. European toxicologists made tests and said that traces of a toxic substance from the Novichok group were found in the patient’s blood and urine. They were also found on a water bottle that his family took from a Tomsk hotel room. Russian doctors noted that they did not detect any poisons. In September, Navalny was brought out of a coma and discharged. Rehabilitation will take several weeks, after which he plans to return to Russia.