Russia: Anti-Putin Politician Poisoned
Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is in a grave condition after he was apparently poisoned.
The 44-year-old politician was flying home to the capital city of Moscow on Thursday morning, 20 August, from Tomsk, Siberia, when the poisoning allegedly occurred.
According to his press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, Navalny became unwell on the flight after drinking a cup of tea. Sweating profusely, he went to the bathroom and subsequently lost consciousness.
The plane made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he was taken to the intensive care unit at the Emergency Hospital No. 1.
Yarmysh said: “The doctors say that the toxin was absorbed more quickly because of the hot liquid. Right now, [Navalny] is unconscious. He was put under [a] ventilator.”
A fierce critic of Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Navalny suffered a similar poisoning last year – the incident occurred while he was serving a jail sentence for organising an unsanctioned protest against the Russian administration.
Politicians who oppose Putin’s government have faced violence in the past – including former deputy prime minister, Boris Nemtsov, who in 2015 was shot and killed in Moscow.
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