Report: Russian spy unit behind attempt to poison opposition leader

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Sources from Germany claimed that the prominent leader was administered a second shot while still in a coma.
• During a flight on the way to Moscow in August, Navalny came down with illness and was treated in Berlin.
• Military labs later confirmed that it found traces of Novichok in his system, and Navalny says Putin is responsible.

Unnamed sources from Germany accused Russia of the attempted assassination of Alexander Navalny, an opposition leader using a Novichok neurotoxin, reported to the second incidence after he endured the first attack. 

A report from the Sunday Times suggested that another shot of the lethal poison gas Novichok was given to Navalny, said to be Vladimir Putin’s aggressive critic,  while he was still unconscious following an attack in Serbia.

The 44-year-old Navalny got sick on August 20 while traveling to Moscow,  and a German army lab later found proof of the Novichok present in his body.

The chemical agent is reported to have been reutilized with the anticipations that he would pass away before he arrives in Berlin for hospital treatment following the Kremlin’s decision to allow him to travel because of rising pressure worldwide.

It was theorized that those responsible for giving Navalny the nerve agent have access to the hotel room where he stayed at Tomsk, Serbia,  his stopover before leaving for Moscow.

The suspects reportedly tainted Navalny’s garments with Novichok. There are also different assumptions on how he got the poison gas, such as dashing the tea he had while at the airport.

Navalny suddenly felt sick and collapsed inside the plane, which led the aircraft to land for an emergency in Omsk.

The ambulance that took him to the hospital gave a shot of atropine, treatment for specific chemical agents and general pesticide contaminations.

Sources said the between these events, from the plane to the Berlin transfer for further treatment on August 22,  he was administered again with a nerve agent while he was still in a medically induced coma.

While two shots increase the fatality risk, an expert of environmental toxicology at Leeds University, Alastair Hay,  said the doses of atropine in his system could have potentially countered the poison’s effects.

Charite hospital doctors n Berlin took care of him, and he was under a medically induced coma for about 18 days.

Germany announced on September 2 that an army lab found traces of Novichok on Navalny’s body, saying there was clear proof of the chemical agent as confirmed by third-party labs in France and Sweden.  

Source: Daily Mail UK