Tests performed on samples taken from prominent Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny showed the presence of the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, the German government has said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement on Wednesday testing by a special German military laboratory had shown "proof without a doubt of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group".

"It is a dismaying event that Alexey Navalny was the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent in Russia," Seibert said. "The German government condemns this attack in the strongest terms. The Russian government is urgently requested to provide clarifications over the incident."

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was not informed of the German findings and has no such data, the TASS news agency reported.

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