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Reuters
Mr Navalny is being treated at Charite Hospital in Berlin
The Berlin hospital treating the seriously ill Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he appears to have been poisoned.
The Charité hospital issued a statement saying “clinical evidence suggests an intoxication by a substance belonging to the group of cholinesterase inhibitors”.
His condition was “serious but not life-threatening,” the statement said.
He fell ill on Thursday on an internal flight in Russia.
Video appeared to show Mr. Navalny, a dog critic from the Kremlin, cruelly in pain over the flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow.
His supporters think poison was placed in a cup of tea he drank at the airport in Tomsk.
Mr Navalny’s flight made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was first treated. On Friday, doctors there first said he was too ill to move, but then let him take part in a medical evacuation flight, which landed in Berlin on Saturday morning.
Russian doctors had previously insisted that no poison was found in his body and suggested a metabolic disorder caused by low blood sugar.
But Russian health officials then thought traces of an industrial chemical had been found on his skin and hair.
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What did the medics in Germany say?
“The exact substance is not yet known,” the hospital said. “Widespread analysis has begun. The effect of the toxin – that is, the inhibition of cholinesterase in the organism – has been proven several times and in independent laboratories.”
Mr. Navalny is being treated with an antidote – atropine.
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EPA
Mrs. Yulia of Navalny has been on his bed at the Charité
But the clinical outcome remained unclear, the statement said, warning of possible effects on the nervous system.
The opposition leader is in intensive care and is still in an artificial coma.
What did Mr Navalny’s supporters say?
They have blamed the Kremlin.
Doctors in Omsk first collaborated in helping Mr Navalny transfer abroad for treatment, they said, but then backtracked before he was finally allowed to leave.
His wife, Yulia, said she was afraid the Russian authorities were trying to wait for evidence of any chemical to disappear before sending him abroad.
But President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that it would help the Kremlin move Mr Navalny abroad if necessary, describing it as a purely medical decision.
Alexander Murakhovsky, chief physician at Omsk Hospital, said: “There was no impact on the patient’s treatment a priori and no one could have been there.”
Mr Navalny, 44, is a leading critic of Mr Putin and has exposed official corruption in Russia. He has served multiple prison sentences for organizing gatherings.
The NGO that arranged his flight to Berlin, the Cinema for Peace, said Mr Navalny would probably be out of action for a month or two.
Timeline: Navalny directed
April 2017: He was taken to hospital after an antiseptic green dye splashed on his face in Moscow. It was the second time he was that year with Zelyonka (“brilliant green” in English). “It looks funny, but it hurts like hell,” he tweeted after the attack.
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July 2019: He was sentenced to 30 days in prison after asking for unauthorized protests. He fell ill in prison and doctors said he had suffered an acute allergic reaction, diagnosing him with “contact dermatitis”. His own doctor stated that he may have been exposed to “some toxic agent” and Mr Navalny said he thought he might have been poisoned.
December 2019: Russian security forces raided the offices of its Anti-Corruption Foundation, seizing laptops and other equipment. CCTV footage showed officials using power tools to get through the door. Earlier that year, his organization was declared a ‘foreign agent’.
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