The office of the UN human rights chief is calling on the Russian government to carry out or cooperate with an independent investigation of the reported poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed the emergence of Navalny from a coma in a Berlin hospital, said office spokesman Rupert Colville. "There was a very serious crime committed on Russian soil," he told reporters in Geneva.

"There appears to to be no doubt this exotic and highly deadly substance " Novichok " was used, and clearly there must be a proper investigation.' "Who does it, how they do it, as long as it's independent, impartial and thorough, and preferably quick, it's less important in a sense to say who does it," he added. "In theory at least, it's incumbent on the Russian authorities to investigate a crime of this severity that took place on their own territory." Navalny, a fierce, high-profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was flown to Germany last month after falling ill on August 20 on a domestic flight in Russia.