’Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Poisoned’
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been rushed to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Russia’s Siberia region after falling ill from suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman says.
The 44-year political rival of Russian President Vladimir Putin was reportedly placed on a ventilator.
Spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social networking site Twitter that he felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia. “The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. Alexei has a toxic poisoning,” Yarmysh tweeted Thursday.
She told the Echo Moskvy radio station that 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.
The incident will raise questions as several perceived or known opponents of President Putin have been poisoned.
Russian security services have been suspected of targeting several dissidents and others, including Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent who was poisoned in England in 2018.
TEA POISONING?
In the latest suspected poisoning case, “We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed with his tea,” spokeswoman Yarmysh wrote. “That’s the only thing he drank this morning.”
The head doctor at the hospital in Omsk, Alexander Murakhovsky, said in published remarks that Navalny was in “serious condition.”
This wasn’t the first time Navalny was struggling with suspicious health issues. Last year, he was hospitalized with a “severe allergic reaction” in jail. His doctor made clear during that period that it could be the result of poisoning.
It happened after he was detained for leading an unauthorized election protest. Navalny was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment for conducting an illegal protest against
a decision by election authorities to ban several opposition candidates from running for Moscow’s City Council.
Earlier Navalny, a lawyer, anti-corruption activist and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was doused with a bright green liquid in the Siberian city of Barnaul in 2017. He was attacked by an unknown assailant who had pretended to shake his hand.
Navalny revealed at the time that a doctor told him he had lost 80 percent of the sight in one eye after suffering a chemical burn from the green liquid.
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