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Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a rare nerve agent that was developed in Russia, German officials say. Navalny, a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is being treated in Berlin’s Charité hospital, seen here behind the Reichstag.
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Christoph Soeder/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a rare nerve agent that was developed in Russia, German officials say. Navalny, a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is being treated in Berlin’s Charité hospital, seen here behind the Reichstag.
Christoph Soeder/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Updated at 12:44 p.m. ET
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a variant of Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent, according to tests carried out by a German military laboratory. A German government spokesman says the evidence is “without a doubt.”
Navalny “is the victim of a crime that intended to silence him,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a news conference Wednesday about the findings. The crime, she said, was an “attempted murder.”
Novichok is the same nerve agent used to poison former KGB spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in a 2018 attack in Britain that Western nations have blamed on Moscow.
Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Merkel, says that Germany condemns the attack in the strongest possible terms and urges the Russian government to explain what happened.
Navalny, 44, fell ill on a commercial flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk on Aug. 20, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. His spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said she saw him drink one thing: a cup of tea at the airport in Tomsk.
Two days later, the activist and politician was airlifted from Siberia to the Charité hospital in Berlin. Navalny remains in a medically induced coma, but in a recent update, German doctors said his condition is stable and that his life is not in danger.
The Novichok group of nerve agents was “developed in a top-secret laboratory in Moscow and was once a closely held secret of the Russian government,” as NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel has reported. The name means “newcomer” in Russian — the chemical weapons were developed in the last years of the Cold War, in a bid to create agents that are both lethal and very difficult to detect.
Navalny is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics. The opposition leader has also investigated well-placed officials over potential instances of corruption and abuse of office.
When Navalny was being treated in Siberia, doctors there claimed there were no traces of poison in his system. Instead, they said he was suffering from a blood sugar imbalance.
Merkel’s office says the government is hoping Navalny will make a full recovery.
Navalny “continues to be treated in an intensive care unit and remains on a ventilator,” the Charité hospital said Wednesday. “Recovery is likely to be lengthy. It is still too early to gauge the long-term effects which may arise in relation to this severe poisoning.”
Germany will notify the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about the nerve agent’s use, Merkel said. She added that Germany will also inform NATO and the European Union about the new allegations against Russia and that the organizations will discuss “an appropriate and joint reaction.”
Both Sergei and Yulia Skripal survived the March 2018 attack in Salisbury, England, and the U.K. charged two Russian men with the crime. Then-Prime Minister Theresa May said that the U.K.’s security and intelligence agencies determined the men were “officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.”
Four months after the Skripals were poisoned, two local residents of Salisbury came into contact with Novichok and one of them later died. U.K. authorities have said the two residents likely were exposed to nerve agent that had been discarded after the March attack.
The Russian government has denied involvement in the Salisbury poisonings.
Esme Nicholson contributed to this report for NPR.
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]]>Doctors treating Alexei Navalny for a suspected poisoning have refused to release him for evacuation to a clinic abroad, sparking a standoff with his family and aides who say the Kremlin critic’s life is in danger in Russia.
The hospital’s decision was announced just an hour before a plane was due to arrive to evacuate Navalny to Berlin’s Charité hospital. Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk, after collapsing on a flight on Thursday.
The hospital’s chief doctor, Alexander Murakhovsky, said they did not believe Navalny had been poisoned but declined to name the cause of his sudden illness on Thursday.
Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh said the decision to delay his evacuation to the European clinic was “an attempt on his life”.
Murakhovsky said Navalny was too sick to be moved, despite saying just hours earlier that his condition had improved. “Anything could happen. Even the worst could happen,” he said.
Later, Murakhovsky said doctors “do not believe that the patient has been poisoned”.
He added: “We have a diagnosis, we have complications … I can’t announce the diagnosis that we have made, but it has been told to his wife and the brother of our patient.”
Navalny supporters have said they believe the hospital is under pressure to delay his transfer to thwart a proper investigation into what caused his sudden illness, which forced pilots to make an emergency landing as he screamed in agony.
“He’s not in a very good condition and we can’t trust this hospital,” Navalny’s wife, Yulia, told journalists at the hospital on Friday morning. “We demand they release him to us so we can treat him in an independent hospital with doctors whom we trust.”
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said a police official had told him they had found a “deadly substance” in Navalny’s blood, but refused to divulge which one, citing the ongoing investigation.
“This substance presents a risk to the life of not just Alexei, but those around him too,” the police official had said, according to Zhdanov. “Everyone around him should be wearing protective equipment.” Navalny’s team believed hospital officials were stalling for time, possibly until the poison left his system.
If confirmed as a poison attack, it would be the latest in a series of high-profile assaults, often with poison, against opposition figures and Russian dissidents that includes the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the 2015 shooting death of the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
A plane left Nuremberg with a medical team in the early hours of Friday and, according to German media, would head to Omsk before returning to Berlin with Navalny, where the Charité hospital was ready to treat him.
Jaka Bizilj, the founder of the German NGO Cinema for Peace Foundation, told the newspaper Bild: “The plane is in the air, we have all the necessary paper and hope that Alexei is ready for transport tomorrow morning so that we can fly to Berlin.”
The Kremlin had earlier signalled it would authorise the evacuation, despite bans on direct flights to EU countries due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he would, if asked, help facilitate Navalny’s transfer for treatment abroad. Navalny supporters appealed to him on Thursday evening.
Yarmysh, the press secretary to Navalny, earlier voiced fears hospital officials could obstruct the process of taking the prominent critic of the president, Vladimir Putin, abroad.
In a video statement released on Thursday night, she said: “We ask the management of the hospital where Alexei is lying now not to obstruct us in obtaining all the documents necessary for his transfer.”
Navalny was flying from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow on Thursday when he suddenly fell ill and lost consciousness, prompting the captain to make an emergency landing in Omsk. Mobile video shot on the plane showed medical personnel rushing onboard as Navalny screamed.
The suspected poisoning has attracted global attention. The White House national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said the news was “extraordinarily concerning” and could affect US-Russia relations.
“He’s a very courageous man. He is a very courageous politician to have stood up to Putin inside Russia, and our thoughts and our prayers are with him and his family,” O’Brien told Fox News. “If the Russians were behind this … it’s something that we’re going to factor into how we deal with the Russians going forward.”
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, joined the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in expressing concern over Navalny’s condition and said he could receive treatment in Germany or France.
“I hope that he can recover and naturally whether it be in France or in Germany he can receive from us all the help and medical support needed,” Merkel said in a joint news conference with Macron.
Peskov had wished Navalny a “speedy recovery” and said claims of poisoning were “only assumptions” until tests proved otherwise.
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]]>Opposition leader’s aide had urged hospital authorities not to interfere in efforts to take him out of the country for treatment
Doctors treating Alexei Navalny for a suspected poisoning have refused to allow him to be taken out of the country for treatment, saying he is too sick to be moved, the Putin critic’s press secretary has said.
The decision was announced by doctors just an hour before a plane was due to arrive to evacuate Navalny to a hospital in Germany. Navalny is currently in a coma in a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk.
“The plane we have organised for Alexei’s evacuation should land in an hour,” wrote Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s press secretary, who is currently at the hospital. “The ban on transporting Navalny is an attempt on his life.”
The hospital’s chief doctor told Navalny’s team that his condition was “unstable” without giving further details. The doctor then locked himself in his office and refused to take further questions.
“We can’t allow him to be transported under the care of his relatives if the patient’s condition elicits concern,” the chief doctor of the Omsk emergency care hospital said. “Anything could happen. Even the worst could happen.”
Navalny’s family said doctors had indicated they were ready to release the Kremlin critic to his family, but then suddenly changed their position shortly before the evacuation flight arrived.
“He’s not in a very good condition and we can’t trust this hospital,” Navalny’s wife, Yulia, told journalists at the hospital on Friday morning. “We demand they release him to us so we can treat him in an independent hospital with doctors whom we trust.”
Navalny’s family and supporters had earlier urged Russian authorities not to interfere as supporters of the stricken opposition leader prepared to fly him out of the country to be treated for a suspected poisoning.
A plane left Nuremberg with a medical team in the early hours of Friday and, according to German media, would head to Omsk before returning to Berlin with Navalny, where the Charité hospital was ready to treat him.
Jaka Bizilj, founder of the German NGO Cinema for Peace Foundation, told newspaper Bild: “The plane is in the air, we have all the necessary paper and hope that Alexei is ready for transport tomorrow morning so that we can fly to Berlin.”
Navalny’s team says doctors have intentionally avoided diagnosing him with poisoning. Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund, said a police official told him they had found a “deadly substance” in his blood, but refused to divulge which one, citing the ongoing investigation.
“This substance presents a risk to the life of not just Alexei, but those around him too,” Zhdanov relayed the words of the police official. “Everyone around him should be wearing protective equipment.” Navalny’s team believed hospital officials were stalling for time, possibly until the poison left his system.
Kira Yarmysh, the press secretary to Navalny, earlier voiced fears hospital officials could obstruct the process of taking the prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin abroad.
In a video statement released on Thursday night, she said: “We ask the management of the hospital where Alexei is lying now not to obstruct us in obtaining all the documents necessary for his transfer
Navalny was flying from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow on Thursday when he suddenly fell ill and lost consciousness, prompting the captain to make an emergency landing in Omsk. Mobile video shot on the plane showed medical personnel rushing onboard as Navalny screamed.
Navalny, 44, was in a coma and on a ventilator in intensive care in Omsk, said Yarmysh on Thursday. She advised against trusting any other sources of information on Navalny’s health.
Hospital officials in Omsk have given contradictory information about his condition and have not allowed his family or supporters in to see him. Anatoly Kalinichenko, the deputy chief doctor of the hospital, confirmed that Navalny was unconscious and on a ventilator, but called his condition “stable”. Doctors “are currently engaged in the process of saving his life”, he said on Thursday afternoon.
Hospital staff had also refused to show them the results of tests that would indicate a poisoning, she said. Investigators who said they wanted to check for medicines or other potential toxins had also seized his belongings, she said.
Yarmysh believes a cup of tea Navalny drank at an airport cafe contained a toxin, and was the only thing he had ingested that morning. “I am sure this was deliberate poisoning,” she said, tying it to upcoming elections in the Siberian regions they had visited.
If confirmed as a poison attack, it would be the latest in a series of high-profile assaults, often with poison, against opposition figures and Russian dissidents that includes the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the 2015 shooting death of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
The suspected poisoning has attracted global attention. White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said the news was “extraordinarily concerning” and could affect US-Russia relations.
“He’s a very courageous man. He is a very courageous politician to have stood up to Putin inside Russia, and our thoughts and our prayers are with him and his family,” O’Brien told Fox News. “If the Russians were behind this … it’s something that we’re going to factor into how we deal with the Russians going forward.”
German chancellor Angela Merkel joined French president Emmanuel Macron in expressing concern over Navalny’s condition and said he could receive treatment in Germany or France.
“I hope that he can recover and naturally whether it be in France or in Germany he can receive from us all the help and medical support needed,” Merkel said in a joint news conference with Macron.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov wished Navalny a “speedy recovery”, adding that the Kremlin would help move him abroad if needed. Peskov said claims of poisoning were “only assumptions” until tests proved otherwise.
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Alexei Navalny is unconscious and on a ventilator, his spokeswoman said on Thursday. The Russian opposition leader, center, is seen here during a rally in Moscow last year along with his wife, Yulia, right. The rally marked five years since the assassination of politician Boris Nemtsov.
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Alexei Navalny is unconscious and on a ventilator, his spokeswoman said on Thursday. The Russian opposition leader, center, is seen here during a rally in Moscow last year along with his wife, Yulia, right. The rally marked five years since the assassination of politician Boris Nemtsov.
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, is fighting for his life in a hospital, and his spokeswoman says she believes Navalny was poisoned as he was flying from Siberia back to Moscow.
Navalny is unconscious and on a ventilator, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, who had been traveling with the opposition leader, said via Twitter.
Navalny drank some tea at the airport in Tomsk, Yarmysh said, adding that he began feeling unwell shortly after his commercial flight took off. His deteriorating condition prompted the plane’s pilots to make an emergency landing at Omsk, some 550 miles away.
A doctor who spoke to reporters at the hospital “said Navalny is in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit,” NPR’s Lucian Kim reports. “But he said poisoning is only one possible diagnosis.”
The only thing Navalny drank before becoming sick was the tea, according to Yarmysh, who says she was with Navalny from early in the morning.
Navalny’s personal doctor Anastasy Vasilyeva says she is asking the Kremlin to help arrange his transfer to a poison treatment center in Europe. Vasilyeva flew to Omsk Thursday along with the politician’s wife, Yulia. But after they arrived at the hospital, they were prevented from seeing him, both Vasilyeva and Yarmysh say.
The opposition leader’s arrival at the hospital triggered a massive police response — Yarmysh said she believes police officers may now outnumber doctors at the hospital where Navalny is being treated. She posted a photo showing what she said was a small portion of the officers, gathered in the hallway outside of Navalny’s room in intensive care.
Navalny, 44, is an energizing force for Russia’s opposition, conducting investigations that expose corruption and mobilizing against President Vladimir Putin’s regime. He attempted to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but he was barred from doing so. Authorities cited a fraud conviction that Navalny describes as retribution for his activism.
It’s the second time Navalny has possibly been poisoned. He was hospitalized in July of 2019, days after being jailed for calling for street protests, with severe swelling and other symptoms. His sudden illness is also suspicious because a number of Kremlin foes have been poisoned or killed during Putin’s 20 years in power.
Recent high-profile cases include the use of a Novichok nerve agent to poison former KGB spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the U.K. But Navalny’s possible poisoning also brings to mind the targeted killing of Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died after drinking tea that was laced with polonium-210 in a London hotel.
But experts also note that because of his repeated successes in exposing corruption among high-ranking government officials and state-controlled companies, Navalny has a long list of enemies in Russia.
“Navalny could have been poisoned by anyone from a long list of ill-wishers,” Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said. “He’s garnered hundreds of enemies in the past few years, including some hardened individuals. And times are such that the cost of doing something like this barely matters.”
On Thursday, Semyon Kochkin, an activist and ally of Navalny, said via Twitter that it would be “impossible” to poison Navalny without Putin’s approval. He added that the ongoing unrest and public anger over a hotly disputed election in Belarus has made Russia’s leaders afraid of similar scenes playing out in Russia.
If Navalny were to die, it would be a seismic event in Russian politics.
“It would be a huge loss for the opposition,” Kim says. “What Navalny has done or accomplished is really energize a new generation of Russians who have only known Putin as their president. And Navalny has shown them how to organize at the grassroots level, how to investigate corruption and how to harness social media also for fundraising purposes.”
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]]>Alexei Navalny, the man seen as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top critics in the country, was poisoned during a flight from Siberia to Moscow and has since been hospitalized, reports said.
Fauci ‘seriously doubts’ Russia’s coronavirus vaccine is effective
Arkady Ostrovsky, The Economist magazine’s Russia editor, said the plane made an emergency landing about half way into the flight, citing Navalny’s press secretary.
The Kremlin did not immediately issue a statement. The Daily Beast reported that Kira Yarmish, Navalny’s press secretary, said he was poisoned with some kind of toxin and was unconscious.
“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea. That was the only thing he drank this morning. The doctors say that the toxin was absorbed more quickly because of the hot liquid. Right now Alexei is unconscious,” she said, according to the report.
Yarmish wrote on Twitter that he is “in a coma in grave condition.”
![Alexey Navalny, Russian opposition leader, walks with demonstrators during a rally in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2019. ]Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/08/640/320/Navalny-GETTY.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Alexey Navalny, Russian opposition leader, walks with demonstrators during a rally in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2019. ]Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images
She also told the Echo Moskvy radio station that during the flight 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.
Reuters reported that at least one of the doctors at the hospital said it was not certain that he had been poisoned and “natural poisoning” was being considered.
Russian authorities have recently opened a criminal case against Navalny for allegedly slandering a veteran of World War II. The case announced Monday by the Investigative Committee stems from comments Navalny posted on social media about a video on Kremlin-backed RT television.
In it, several prominent Russians speak in favor of the July 1 referendum on constitutional reform that would allow Putin to run for another two terms. Among those featured was Ignat Artemenko, a 93-year-old WWII veteran.
Navalny’s post criticized the people in the video as being “without conscience.” The case against Navalny says the comments were “false information discrediting the honor and dignity of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War.”
If convicted, Navalny could face a fine of up to one year’s income or 240 hours of community service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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