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Russian agents carried out a second assassination attempt on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before he was transferred to Berlin, a British newspaper alleged. Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks.
The Kremlin tried to poison outspoken Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny a second time after the first attempt failed. The times the newspaper has alleged.
Navalny reportedly received a second dose of poison before he was transferred to Berlin for further treatment, Western intelligence sources told the British newspaper on Saturday.
The anti-corruption activist fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow after being poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.
The plane’s pilot made an emergency landing in the city of Omsk, allowing an ambulance team to administer atropine, an antidote to the poison.
Twice saved from a deadly attack
The antidote is believed to have also prevented the second assassination attempt from succeeding.
“That atropine saved his life,” said former British Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment Commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. The times.
“Nerve agents cause multiple organ failure. The lungs give up first and you die. If used quickly, atropine reverses the effects. “
The times alleged that the Russian security forces may have influenced the doctor who treated Navalny in Omsk; He would later announce that Putin’s biggest critic was probably suffering from a metabolic disorder rather than poisoning.
German security sources believe that the would-be killers took this opportunity to carry out a second attack with the deadly nerve agent.
“This was with a view to his being dead when he got to Berlin,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
Moscow denies connection to Soviet-era nerve agent
However, this was also unsuccessful and Navalny was able to be treated in Berlin and began to recover.
“Giving a second dose of Novichok would certainly increase the chances of killing,” said Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds.
“But if he was already ‘atropinized’, this would counteract the nerve agent, although it could mean prolonging his coma. The toxin would take longer to break down in the liver. “
Moscow has denied any involvement, despite Novichok’s reports from both German researchers and the intergovernmental Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Russia’s delegation to the OCPW accused Germany and its allies of unleashing “a massive disinformation campaign against Russia.”
The Kremlin also diverted sentences from more than 50 countries suggesting that Navalny was instead poisoned with Novichok, the nerve agent developed by the Soviets, after arriving in Germany.
