Tests show Putin’s critic Navalny was poisoned: Doctors

BERLIN: Tests conducted on Russian dissident Alexei Navalny at a German hospital indicate that he was poisoned, but doctors said on Monday he was being treated with an antidote and his life was not in immediate danger.

The Charité hospital said in a statement that the team of doctors who have been examining Navalny since he was flown from Siberia and admitted on Saturday have found indications of “cholinesterase inhibitors” in his system.

Cholinesterase inhibitors are a broad range of substances that are found in several drugs, but also pesticides and nerve agents. Charité said the specific substance to which Navalny was exposed is not yet known.

“The patient is being treated in intensive care and remains in medically induced coma. While his condition is serious, it is not currently life-threatening,” the hospital said in a statement.

Cholinesterase inhibitors act by blocking the breakdown of a key chemical in the body, acetycholine, that transmits signals between nerve cells. This results in overstimulation of the junction between nerves and muscles. Eachyearhundredsofthousands of people suffer from cholinesterase inhibitors poisoning, mostly due to exposure to pesticides.

Navalny is being treated with the antidote atropine, the hospital said.“Alexei Navalny’s prognosis remains unclear; the possibility of long-term effects, particularly those affecting the nervous system, cannot be excluded,” it said. Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Thursday and was taken to a hospital in the city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.