MOSCOW – Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is hospitalized in serious condition after falling ill aboard a flight from what his press spokeswoman said appeared to be deliberate poisoning.
Navalny, 44, was taken to Hospital No. 1 in the Siberian city of Omsk, where doctors induced a coma and connected him to a respirator.
Navalny was heading home to Moscow when he fell ill — forcing an emergency landing. A passenger posted a video to Telegram in which cries could be heard from inside the airplane’s lavatory stall.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said in a tweet that the opposition leader had only drunk tea before complaining he felt poorly.
“It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid,” said Yarmysh in a post to social media.
One passenger, Pavel Lebedev, posted a photo from an airport cafe prior to the flight of Navalny drinking what appeared to be a cup of tea. S7, the airline that Navalny boarded, said he had not been served food or drink.
Speaking to reporters, the deputy head doctor of Hospital No. 1, Anataly Kalinichenko, suggested Navalny’s condition had stabilized but was still serious.
“His active treatment is ongoing,” said Dr. Kalinichenko. “Doctors aren’t simply doing everything possible. Doctors are truly working to save his life.”
Anatoliy Kalinichenko, deputy chief doctor of the Omsk hospital of intensive care where Alexei Navalny is hospitalized speaks to the media in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 20, 2020.
Navalny’s suspected poisoning Thursday instantly prompted theories of whether his political enemies — and the Kremlin in particular — would have anything to gain from a brazen attack that many would blame on President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement in past attacks against opposition figures, arguing they’re provocations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was monitoring news of Navalny’s condition through the press and “wished him a speedy recovery, as they would any citizen of the country.”
Peskov also said he saw no reason to particularly inform President Putin about the incident, but the government would help him seek treatment abroad, if he desired.
Alexey Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalny, and personal doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, arrived at the hospital Thursday afternoon but were prevented from seeing him without his acknowledgement, said Yarmysh.
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and opposition politician Ivan Zhdanov arrive at the City Clinical Emergency Hospital Number 1 where Alexei Navalny was admitted in Omsk, Aug. 20, 2020.
Pictures and video from the scene showed scores of police at the hospital — presumably to carry out an investigation.
Anti-corruption work
Navalny has long been a problematic figure for the Kremlin – detailing corruption and excess at the highest levels of the government on his popular YouTube channel.
The channel’s mix of investigative journalism and caustic humor have resonated with younger Russians in particular.
Navalny has also made no secret of his political ambitions.
He tried to run a campaign for president in 2018 that was ultimately undone by a lingering criminal conviction. His supporters — and the European Court of Human Rights — both agreed the charges were levied to keep him out of the race.
Associates from the Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Foundation, known by its Russian acronym FBK, were also prevented from participating in local elections in Moscow in 2020 — a ban that prompted a wave of street protests in the capital last year.
Despite not being on the ballot, FBK members promoted what is described as a smart voting strategy that resulted in the defeat of dozens of Kremlin-backed candidates.
The foundation was raided by police and hit with money laundering charges shortly thereafter.
In June, Navalny announced he was dissolving the foundation amid a slew of court-ordered fines and penalties handed down by judges loyal to the state.
Poisoning trends
Under President Vladimir Putin’s rule, Russia has had a grim history of government opponents being attacked, poisoned and killed.
A Timeline of Russian Poisoning Cases (Click here to see timeline)
In 2015, Navalny ally Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed on a bridge just outside the Kremlin walls. Vladimir Kara-Murza, an aide to Nemtsov, barely survived a poisoning attack a few months later.
People attend a rally in memory of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015, in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24, 2019.
Navalny himself suffered a serious burn to his eye after provocateurs doused him with antiseptic dye in 2017.
He also fell ill while serving out a month-long prison sentence in July 2019. Doctors suspected he may have had contact with “some toxic agent” that led to “contact dermatitis.”
None of his cellmates shared similar symptoms.
Meanwhile, political observers focused on the circumstance of Thursday’s incident and how that might influence Navalny’s chances for recovery.
Political observer Anton Orekh of radio station Echo of Moscow noted in a comment to social media that if Navalny had indeed been poisoned before his flight, it was intended to do maximum damage.
Once in the air, noted Orekh, “quick medical help is all but impossible.
FEATURED IMAGE: Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, center, his wife, Yulia, right, and opposition activist Lyubov Sobol, left, take part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 29, 2020.
By Charles Maynes/VOA News
