Poison theory as Putin critic fights for life
Dominic Raab ‘deeply concerned’ after Alexei Navalny cried out in pain before collapsing on flight
Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, is “fighting for his life” in a coma after what may have been a targeted poisoning. The country’s most vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin drank a cup of tea at Tomsk airport before becoming ill on the flight to Moscow.
RUSSIAN opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “fighting for his life” in a coma yesterday after what his spokesman said was a targeted poisoning.
Mr Navalny, the country’s most vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was flying to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk when he began crying out in pain and his plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
The only thing the opposition leader drank that morning was a cup of tea at the airport before boarding, Kira Yarmysh, his spokesman, said.
“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea ... Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid. Alexei is now unconscious.”
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said he was “deeply concerned” by the alleged poisoning.
Other MPS compared the case to the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer who was poisoned by a radioactive substance in London in 2006, and the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury two years ago.
A representative of the Omsk hospital where the 44-year-old was being treated said he was on a ventilator in intensive care, and in a stable but serious condition.
“Doctors are really working on saving his life right now,” the hospital’s deputy head, Anatoly Kalinichenko, told journalists. “There is no certainty that the cause is poison but this is one potential version.”
Ms Yarmysh accused doctors of “evasion”.
“They are clearly playing for time and are not saying what they know,” she said, adding that there was a heavy police presence at the hospital.
Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia was initially prevented from seeing her husband, but hospital officials later allowed her into the ward. The opposition leader’s personal doctor was not allowed to visit him. Reports last night said Mr Navalny was due to be flown to Berlin for further treatment, accompanied by medical staff specialised in caring for coma patients. France and Germany yesterday extended the offer of assistance to Mr Navalny.
Mr Navalny’s team said their efforts to have him moved to a European hospital were being blocked by officials.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said: “Alexei Navalny is a case that really shook me up.”
Police sources told Russian state media they were not investigating deliberate poisoning as a possible cause of his illness. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Mr Navalny was being treated by the best doctors and wished him a “speedy recovery”.
Mr Navalny is a Yale-educated lawyer with a wide following in Russia and a popular Youtube channel where he presents investigations into corruption by officials. The father of two was barred from standing against Mr Putin in Russia’s most recent presidential election and had been repeatedly jailed for organising anti-kremlin protests.
“While we await independent confirmation, this incident bears all the hallmarks of the Russian security, with its similarity to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko,” Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the defence select committee, said.
Mr Navalny was taken to hospital last year with an acute allergic reaction that he and his doctor said could have been caused by a “toxic agent”. The official explanation was dermatitis.
In 2017 he suffered a serious chemical burn in one eye after an assailant threw green dye in his face outside his Moscow office.
Ms Yarmysh said she believed the alleged poisoning was linked to regional elections next month, in which Mr Navalny is promoting opposition candidates.
He has also drawn comparisons between the current situation in Belarus, where popular protests have broken out against the long-time dictator Alexander Lukashenko, and what might await Mr Putin when he next faces a presidential election in 2024.
Photos on social media show the opposition leader drinking what appears to be tea in Tomsk airport before boarding his flight. A video taken by a passenger on the plane shows stewards with first-aid kits walking to treat a man moaning in pain. In a later video, Mr Navalny is seen being transferred on a stretcher to an ambulance.
Mr Navalny is not the first opposition figure to be targeted in recent years. Five years ago, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was killed in a drive-by shooting near the walls of the Kremlin. A group of Chechen men was jailed for the attack but questions remain over who ordered the killing.
‘Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid. Alexei is now unconscious’