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Russia’s opposition leader in coma, allegedly poisoned by toxic tea

Published:Thursday | August 20, 2020 | 10:08 AM
In this Sunday, February 24, 2019 file photo, Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny takes part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia. Navalny was placed on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning during a flight, his spokeswoman said Thursday, August 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator Thursday in an intensive care unit in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning that his allies believe is linked to his political activity.

The 44-year-old critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, and was taken to a hospital after the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter.

She told the Echo Moskvy radio station that he must have allegedly consumed poison in a tea he drank at an airport cafe before boarding the plane early Thursday.

During the flight, Navalny started sweating and asked her to talk to him so that he could “focus on the sound of a voice.”

He then went to the bathroom and lost consciousness, and has been in a coma in grave condition ever since.

Other opposition figures were quick to suggest the Kremlin's involvement.

“We are sure that the only people that have the capability to target Navalny or myself are Russian security services with definite clearance from Russia’s political leadership,” Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the protest group Pussy Riot, who ended up in intensive care after suspected poisoning in 2018, told The Associated Press.

“We believe that Putin definitely is a person who gives that go-ahead in this situation.”

Doctors at the Omsk ambulance hospital №1, where the politician is being treated, remain tight-lipped about his diagnosis and only said they were considering a variety of theories, including poisoning.

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