8/24/20
The Charite hospital treating gravely ill Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny since he was medically airlifted to Germany two days earlier says that its tests indicate he was "poisoned." Navalny "is in an intensive-care unit and is still in an induced coma," it said on August 24, adding that his health "is serious but there is currently no acute danger to his life." The staunch anti-corruption campaigner and critic of President Vladimir Putin fell ill on August 20 during a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where doctors put him into an induced coma. "The clinical findings indicate intoxication by a substance from the group of active substances called cholinesterase inhibitors," a statement by the Charite hospital said. Cholinesterase inhibitors, also known as anti-cholinesterase, are a broad range of chemicals that are found in several drugs but also in some pesticides and nerve agents. Russian doctors who treated Navalny contradicted the German colleagues' statement, saying on August 24 that they did not detect the toxin cited in the Charite hospital tests. Colleagues and supporters of Navalny have said he might have been poisoned when he drank tea purchased at the Tomsk airport.
EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell issued a similar statement, saying: "It is imperative that the Russian authorities initiate an independent and transparent investigation on the poisoning of Mr Navalny without delay." "The European Union strongly condemns what seems to be an attempt on Mr Navalny’s life," he said, adding that "those responsible must be held to account." Earlier, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin that "protection is necessary" for Navalny because poisoning was suspected as "extensive" testing continued. "The suspicion is...that somebody poisoned Mr. Navalny -- that somebody seriously poisoned Mr. Navalny -- which, unfortunately, there are some examples of in recent Russian history. So the world takes this suspicion very seriously," Seibert said.
