Germany: ‘Russian Dissident Navalny Likely Poisoned’
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – A prominent German hospital treating Russian dissident and fierce Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says tests indicate that he was poisoned.
Berlin’s Charité hospital explained in a statement Monday that doctors examining Navalny since he was admitted Saturday found “cholinesterase inhibitors” in his system.
The toxin is blocking cholinesterase, an enzyme needed for the proper functioning of the nervous system.
German medics confirmed results by independent laboratories. But doctors who treated Navalny in Russia denied that the substance was present.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had personally offered Germany’s assistance in treating Navalny, expressed concern.
URGING INVESTIGATION
She said, due to the findings and Navalny’s “prominent role in the political opposition in Russia, authorities there are now called upon urgently to investigate this crime in detail and full transparency.”
Merkel urged Moscow to ensure that “those responsible” for poisoning the 44-year-old opposition leaders “must be identified and held accountable.”
Navalny fell ill on an internal flight in Russia on Thursday. A video appeared to show Navalny, a fierce critic of the Kremlin, writhing in agony on the flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow.
His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said he apparently consumed poison in tea he drank at an airport cafe before boarding a 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.”
STILL IN COMA
He then went to the bathroom and lost consciousness, and has been in a coma and on a ventilator in grave condition ever since.
Navalny was initially taken to a Russian hospital after the plane made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk last Thursday.
On Saturday he was brought to the Berlin hospital amid mounting international pressure. Alexi Navalny’s wife and a top aide visited him Sunday in the Berlin hospital where doctors stressed his situation was stable.
“While his condition is serious, it is not currently life-threatening,” explained his hospital in a statement.
Several known or perceived opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin have been poisoned in recent years.
Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption has been exposing graft among government officials, including some at the highest level.
Last month, he was reportedly forced to shut his foundation after a financially devastating lawsuit from Yevgeny Prigozhin, a controversial businessman who has close ties with the Kremlin.