Thu 20 August 2020:
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in a serious condition in a Siberian hospital after suffering severe symptoms of what his spokeswoman on Thursday said she believed was a deliberate poisoning.
A doctor at the hospital told the Russian state news agency Tass that Navalny was in “serious condition.” The opposition activist is currently on a ventilator, his press secretary, Kira Yarmish, wrote on Twitter.
Navalny, 44, an outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was reported to be returning to Moscow by plane from Tomsk in Siberia when began to feel ill, she said.
Alexei Navalny rushed to hospital after Tomsk to Moscow plane had to request emergency landing in Omsk due to Alexey’s sudden acute illness. Alexey felt unwell soon after the plane took off & fainted said press secretary Kira Yarmysh, who suspects poison was added to his tea pic.twitter.com/GImONC6Vxq
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) August 20, 2020
The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk and he was taken to hospital where he was unconscious on Thursday morning in intensive care, she said. Mobile video published by several Russian news sites showed the Russian opposition leader being wheeled on a gurney from the plane to an ambulance waiting on the tarmac in Omsk.
Yarmish wrote that doctors believed Navalny had ingested a toxic subject but did not yet know what.
“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea. That was the only thing he drank this morning. The doctors say that the toxin was absorbed more quickly because of the hot liquid. Right now Alexei is unconscious,” she added.
Сегодня утром Навальный возвращался в Москву из Томска. В полёте ему стало плохо. Самолет экстренно сел в Омске. У Алексея токсическое отравление. Сейчас мы на скорой едем в больницу
— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) August 20, 2020
Yarmysh drew a parallel with an incident last year in which Navalny suffered an acute allergic reaction one doctor said could have resulted from poisoning with an unknown chemical.
“One year ago, Alexei was poisoned when he was in jail,” she wrote. “Clearly the same thing has happened again.”
He had drunk tea at a cafe at Tomsk airport before boarding his flight. The Interfax news agency quoted the cafe’s owners as saying they wee checking CCTV cameras to try to establish what had happened.
His plane later made an emergency landing in Omsk so that he could be rushed to hospital, Yarmysh said.
The TASS news agency cited the head doctor at a hospital in Omsk confirming that Navalny had been admitted there and saying he was in a serious condition.
Yarmysh drew a parallel with an incident last year in which Navalny suffered an acute allergic reaction that one doctor said could have resulted from poisoning with an unknown chemical.
“Obviously the same has been done to him now,” said Yarmysh. She did not say who she believed may have poisoned Navalny, but said police had been called to the hospital.
Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, has served several stints in jail in recent years for organising anti-Kremlin protests.
Opposition activist Petr Verzilov recently revealed a poisoning attempt against his life in Moscow in 2018. “I spent several months in the emergency ward in Moscow and Berlin,” he wrote. “The first few days the doctors were fighting for my life and were not sure I would live. In two years there has been no attempt to investigate my attempted murder.”
Navalny has also used the Belarus protests against its president, Alexander Lukashenko, to try to persuade Russians to back candidates he supports in next month’s local elections.
In a recent appearance on his YouTube channel, Navalny spoke excitedly of how successful strikes by key workers in Belarus had forced authorities to start engaging with protesters.
