into the alleged poisoning. According to John Sipher, a former CIA station chief in Moscow, "Whether or not Putin personally ordered the poisoning, he is behind any and all efforts to maintain control through intimidation and murder". On 24 August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a joint statement called on the Russian authorities to clarify in detail and as transparent as possible all the circumstances of the incident, to identify and prosecute those responsible. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the Russian authorities should immediately begin an independent and transparent investigation into the poisoning of Navalny. On 25 August, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that France, on the basis of the preliminary conclusion of the Charité clinic doctors about Navalny's poisoning, considers the incident a criminal act and calls for finding and punishing those responsible. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun expressed deep concern about Navalny's condition, as well as the impact of reports of his poisoning on civil society in Russia. The American diplomat also stressed the importance of transparency and freedom of speech in any democratic state. Biegun said that "if Navalny’s poisoning is confirmed, the U.S. could take steps that would exceed Washington’s response to findings of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election." On 25 August, the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has ties with Putin and has been nicknamed "Putin's chef", was quoted as saying that he intended to enforce a court decision last year that required Navalny, his associate Lyubov Sobol and his Anti-Corruption Foundation to pay 88 million rubles in damages to the Moskovsky Shkolnik company over a video investigation. Prigozhin had bought the debt so that Navalny and his associate would owe him directly. Prigozhin was quoted by the company as saying "I intend to strip this group of unscrupulous people of their clothes and shoes" and that if Navalny survived, Navalny would be liable "according to the full severity of Russian law". On 26 August, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined in demanding a transparent investigation. According to Johnson, Navalny's poisoning "shocked the world," and Stoltenberg saw no reason to question the conclusions of the Charite doctors. On 2 September, after the German government officially announced that the pharmaceutical and toxicology laboratory of the Bundeswehr found traces of poison from the Novichok group in