Putin critic Navalny in coma after suspected poisoning

RUSSIAN opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a Siberian hospital after a suspected poisoning during a flight.

The 44-year-old foe of Russian president Vladimir Putin felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.

She said the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, Siberia, and that Mr Navalny was suffering from “toxic poisoning”.

“He is in a coma in grave condition,” she said on Twitter.

She also told local radio that Mr Navalny was sweating and asked her to talk to him so that he could “focus on a sound of a voice”. He then went to the bathroom and lost consciousness. He has been placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit.

Ms Yarmysh said the politician must have consumed something from tea he drank earlier in the morning.

“Doctors are saying the toxin was absorbed quicker with hot liquid,” she tweeted, adding that Mr Navalny’s team called police to the hospital.

Anatoliy Kalinichenko, deputy chief doctor of the Omsk hospital where the politician is being treated, said Mr Navalny is in grave, yet stable condition.

Dr Kalinichenko said doctors are considering several diagnoses, including poisoning, but refused to give details.

Last year, Mr Navalny was rushed to a hospital from prison where he was serving a sentence following an administrative arrest, with what his team said was suspected poisoning.

Doctors then said he had a severe allergic attack and discharged him back to prison the following day.

Mr Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption had been exposing government officials, including some at the highest level.

Last month, the politician had to close the foundation after a lawsuit from Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with ties to the Kremlin.

Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko has accused Mr Navalny of organising unprecedented mass protests against his re-election.