Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Novichok-class poison put Putin rival in a coma’
Medics believe activist was victim of foul play
PUTIN rival Alexei Navalny was likely to have been poisoned with a novichock-style nerve agent, German doctors said last night.
The Russian opposition leader was fighting for life in a Berlin hospital after collapsing on a flight to Moscow.
Medics said there were signs he had been poisoned with “cholinesterase inhibitors” in the same category as the deadly Salisbury attacks agent.
They cause violent muscle spasms, twitching, breathing difficulty, convulsions and possible death.
Last night Mr Navalny, a severe critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was under armed guard and in an induced coma. Facing international pressure Russian authorities allowed him to be flown to Germany from a hospital in Siberia where he was initially treated.
The Universitatsdedizin hospital, in Berlin, said: “Clinical findings indicate poisoning from the group of substances called cholinesterase inhibitors. The specific substance has not been identified so far.” Mr Putin’s
GRU intelligence agency was named as being behind the 2018 poisoning of ex-russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
Both survived but local woman Dawn Sturgess died after her boyfriend gave her a perfume not knowing the bottle held novichok.
Mr Navalny, 44, collapsed in agony on a flight on Thursday. The pilot made an emergency landing and he was rushed to a hospital in Omsk.
Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia, also 44, wrote to Mr Putin demanding he be moved immediately.
Despite suspicions he ordered the “hit”, Mr Putin has publicly wished Mr Navalny a “speedy recovery.”