Putin critic in coma after alleged poisoning

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma after falling ill from suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman said Thursday.
• President Vladimir Putin’s critic felt ill on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk after drinking tea from a coffee shop at the airport.
• Navalny was also hospitalized last year for suspected poisoning in a prison where he was serving a sentence after an administrative arrest.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital ICU in Siberia after falling ill from a suspected poisoning during a flight, his spokeswoman said Thursday. 

President Vladimir Putin’s critic felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter.

Yarmysh said the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, Siberia because 44-year-old Navalny was suffering from “toxic poisoning.”

Russian state news agency Tass cited the chief doctor at the hospital, saying Navalny is in grave condition.

Yarmysh told Echo Moskvy radio station that Navalny asked her to talk to him so that he could “focus on a sound of a voice.” He lost consciousness after going to the bathroom.

The spokeswoman believed there must something in the tea he drank Thursday morning at the airport. She noted it was the only thing he drank that morning, AFP noted.

“Doctors are saying the toxin was absorbed quicker with hot liquid,” she tweeted.

Navalny was also hospitalized last year while serving a sentence after an administrative arrest. His team suspected poisoning. Doctors then said he had a severe allergic attack and discharged him back to prison the next day.

Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption has been exposing graft among government officials, including some at the highest level. Last month, the politician had to shut the foundation after a financially devastating lawsuit from Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin.

The most prominent member of Russia’s opposition, Navalny campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but was barred from running.

He set up a network of campaign offices across Russia and has since been putting forward opposition candidates in regional elections, challenging members of Russia’s ruling party, United Russia.

In the interview with Echo Moskvy, Yarmysh said she believed the suspected poisoning was connected to this year’s regional election campaign.

Vyacheslav Gimadi, a lawyer with Navalny’s foundation, said the team is requesting Russia’s Investigative Committee to open a criminal probe.

“There is no doubt that Navalny was poisoned because of his political stance and activity,” Gimadi tweeted Thursday.

Like many other opposition politicians in Russia, Navalny has been frequently detained by law enforcement and harassed by pro-Kremlin groups. In 2017, he was attacked by several men who threw antiseptic in his face, damaging one eye.  

Source: CBS News