‘Poisoned’ Pussy Riot activist ‘better’ after flight out of Russia
AN ANTI-KREMLIN activist who lost his sight, hearing and ability to walk in a suspected poisoning has improved since he was brought from Russia to Germany for treatment, supporters say.
Pyotr Verzilov, publisher of a Russian online news outlet and affiliated with the anti-Kremlin band Pussy Riot, arrived in Berlin from Moscow late on Saturday night on a medical transport plane.
Berlin-based Cinema for Peace human rights group paid for the transport and said Russia had been “co-operative” in the matter.
Photographs at Berlin’s Schoenefeld Airport showed Mr Verzilov on a stretcher, his eyes closed, as he was being transferred to an ambulance.
Mr Verzilov (30) became ill after attending a court hearing in Moscow on Tuesday and later suffered seizures while in an ambulance en route to a hospital in Moscow, Cinema for Peace said in a statement.
“He’s better. Everything is OK,” Pussy Riot member Veronika Nikulshina said in an interview from Mr Verzilov’s hospital room in Berlin. “The doctors here are great.”
Mr Verzilov was being treated at the Charite hospital in the German capital, according to sources.
German newspaper ‘Bild’ quoted family members as saying he had lost his sight, his speech and his ability to walk.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Verzilov’s ex-wife and a Pussy Riot member, said she was convinced he was poisoned.
“I believe that he was poisoned intentionally, and that it was an attempt to intimidate him or kill him,” she said.
Ms Nikulshina told the BBC that a friend of Mr Verzilov’s father would treat him.
Cinema for Peace managing director Jada Bizilj said Mr Verzilov had both Russian and Canadian citizenship.
He said doctors at the clinic were expected to inform the public about the activist’s condition today.
The Canadian government said it was monitoring the situation closely and was seeking more information.
“Canada is concerned by the situation of Canadian citizen Pyotr Verzilov. Our officials have been in contact with Mr Verzilov’s family, and stand ready to provide further consular assistance,” a spokesperson.
Mr Verzilov is publisher of Mediazona, a Russian online news outlet which focuses on human rights violations inside Russia’s penal system.
He staged a brief pitch invasion during the soccer World Cup final in Moscow in July along with three women affiliated with Pussy Riot.
It was not clear if the medical transfer was discussed at a meeting on Friday between German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Pussy Riot came to prominence in 2012 when its members were jailed for staging a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow.