Navalny case a serious problem for Kremlin: International spotlight means Russia has to transparently investigate & find answers

Russia now faces an urgent dilemma. As far as its Western partners are concerned, a prominent figure has either been poisoned in a state-ordered hit, or private actors have managed to act with impunity, in defiance of the law. Ever since opposition figure Alexey Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk nearly two weeks ago, Russian authorities have given the impression of being in a state of denial. In the face of demands that Moscow launch an investigation into Navalny’s apparent poisoning, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov essentially denied that there was anything to investigate. Until the German doctors treating Navalny named the poison which had harmed him, the Russian position was to...