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Aleksei Navalny Hospitalized in Russia in Suspected Poisoning Aleksei Navalny Hospitalized in Russia in Suspected Poisoning
(about 1 hour later)
Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, was on a ventilator in intensive care and unconscious in a Siberian hospital on Thursday after suffering symptoms of what his spokeswoman called poisoning. MOSCOW — Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, was on a ventilator in intensive care and unconscious in a Siberian hospital on Thursday after suffering symptoms of what his spokeswoman called poisoning.
A plane carrying Mr. Navalny, 44, a high-profile critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, made an emergency landing in Omsk while en route to Moscow after he started feeling unwell, the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter.A plane carrying Mr. Navalny, 44, a high-profile critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, made an emergency landing in Omsk while en route to Moscow after he started feeling unwell, the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter.
“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed with his tea,” Ms. Yarmysh wrote. “That’s the only thing he drank this morning.” She later added that the police had been called to the hospital at “our request.”“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed with his tea,” Ms. Yarmysh wrote. “That’s the only thing he drank this morning.” She later added that the police had been called to the hospital at “our request.”
A photograph shared on social media showed him drinking from a cup at the airport cafeteria in Tomsk, from where the flight originated. A photograph shared on social media showed Mr. Navalny, who challenged Mr. Putin in the 2018 presidential election, drinking from a cup at the airport cafeteria in Tomsk, from where the flight originated.
The head doctor at the hospital in Omsk, Alexander Murakhovsky, said Mr. Navalny was in “serious condition,” according to the Russian news agency Tass. No further details were released, and the government had no immediate comment on Mr. Navalny’s condition. The head doctor at the hospital in Omsk, Alexander Murakhovsky, said that Mr. Navalny was in “serious condition,” according to the Russian news agency Tass. No further details were released, and the government had no immediate comment on Mr. Navalny’s condition.
Videos posted by Russian news outlets showed an unconscious Mr. Navalny being wheeled on a gurney to an ambulance waiting on the tarmac at the Omsk airport. In another video, shot inside the aircraft, the opposition leader can be heard moaning in pain.Videos posted by Russian news outlets showed an unconscious Mr. Navalny being wheeled on a gurney to an ambulance waiting on the tarmac at the Omsk airport. In another video, shot inside the aircraft, the opposition leader can be heard moaning in pain.
Last year, he was hospitalized with a “severe allergic reaction” in jail, which his doctor at the time suggested could be the result of a poisoning, after he was detained for leading an unauthorized election protest. Last year, Mr. Navalny was hospitalized with a “severe allergic reaction” in jail, which his doctor at the time suggested could have been the result of a poisoning, after he was detained for leading an unauthorized election protest.
He had been arrested and sentenced to 30 days in jail for calling a rally to protest a decision by the election authorities to bar several opposition candidates from running for Moscow’s City Council.He had been arrested and sentenced to 30 days in jail for calling a rally to protest a decision by the election authorities to bar several opposition candidates from running for Moscow’s City Council.
Mr. Navalny, a lawyer, anticorruption activist and vocal critic of Mr. Putin, was doused with a bright green liquid in the Siberian city of Barnaul in 2017 by an unknown assailant who had pretended to shake his hand.Mr. Navalny, a lawyer, anticorruption activist and vocal critic of Mr. Putin, was doused with a bright green liquid in the Siberian city of Barnaul in 2017 by an unknown assailant who had pretended to shake his hand.
He said that a doctor had told him he had lost 80 percent of the sight in one eye after suffering a chemical burn from the green liquid. He said that a doctor had told him he lost 80 percent of the sight in one eye after suffering a chemical burn from the green liquid.
While there was no independent confirmation that Mr. Navalny had been poisoned before falling ill on Thursday, the Russian security services have been suspected of targeting a number of dissidents and others, including Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian double agent who was poisoned in England in 2018.While there was no independent confirmation that Mr. Navalny had been poisoned before falling ill on Thursday, the Russian security services have been suspected of targeting a number of dissidents and others, including Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian double agent who was poisoned in England in 2018.
Andrew Higgins contributed reporting. The Kremlin and its supporters have for years viewed Mr. Navalny as an enemy because of the investigations into graft by officials carried out by his Anti-Corruption Foundation. Unlike Mr. Putin, who for security reasons almost never uses the internet, Mr. Navalny has exploited social media to mobilize a large following.
Mr. Navalny appeals largely to younger Russians, particularly in larger cities like Moscow, but he has built up a network of offices across the country. Mr. Putin never mentions Mr. Navalny’s name in public and state-controlled news outlets generally ignore him and his work.
But while feigning indifference, the Kremlin has repeatedly tried to silence Mr. Navalny, jailing him, accusing him of money laundering and searching the homes and offices of his supporters.
The Russian Justice Ministry last October classified the Anti-Corruption Foundation as a “foreign agent,” a label frequently used by the Kremlin to stigmatize its critics as traitors.
Mr. Navalny, like many other Kremlin critics, has reveled in the recent unrest in neighboring Belarus and also in the Russian Far East, seeing a sudden burst of protests in those places as a sign that Moscow, too, will emerge from its long, enforced political slumber under Mr. Putin, now in power for more than two decades.
Mr. Putin recently engineered constitutional changes that remove term limits requiring him to step down in 2024 and allow him to rule potentially until 2036. Mr. Navalny denounced the changes, endorsed in a tightly controlled nationwide vote, as a constitutional coup.
Mr. Navalny announced plans to run against Mr. Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but the authorities blocked his candidacy by entangling him in a criminal case involving corruption charges widely seen as trumped up for political reasons.
Mr. Putin would almost certainly have won any election against Mr. Navalny but wanted to avoid a straight contest that would have forced him to acknowledge the existence of a rival with different ideas.
Each assault on Mr. Navalny’s person and reputation, however, has only reaffirmed his position as the country’s best-known opposition leader and stirred sympathy for him even among those who do not trust or like him.
Andrew Higgins reported from Moscow, and Yonette Joseph from Hong Kong.