The Observer view on Russia's poisoning of Alexei Navalny | Observer editorial

Western condemnation is worthless. But if Angela Merkel cancels the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Putin will take notice

Alexei Navalny, who lies critically ill in a German hospital after being poisoned in Siberia, is Russia's unofficial leader of the opposition and the politician Vladimir Putin fears most. Relatively young, resourceful and smart, he has bravely defied many previous attempts to silence him, including imprisonment and physical attacks. Navalny is not easily dismissed as a pro-western dissident or leftwing intellectual. He is a Russian patriot, a daring, Jason Bourne-like figure who recently flew drones over the private dachas of the Kremlin elite to expose their apparently corruptly acquired wealth, then posted videos online.

That the Kremlin is responsible for Navalny's plight is not in serious doubt. Whether Putin had prior knowledge of the plot, or personally authorised it, will probably never be known. As usual, the Kremlin is hiding behind a wall of denials and absurd claims, such as that Navalny fell ill after flying on an empty stomach. But his German doctors are unequivocal. He was poisoned by a chemical nerve agent, novichok, which the Russian state secretly developed and which only Russia is known to have used.