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Oliver Lamb writes about the alleged poisoning of Russian political opponent Alexei Navalny. The activist was on an aeroplane when he suddenly became unwell; he has since been transferred to a hospital in Germany. Such poisonings aren't uncommon in Russia, with outspoken individuals often falling ill under unusual conditions. This article covers freedom of speech and democracy under Putin.
President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic is in a coma after a suspected poisoning.
Alexei Navalny was flying from Siberia to Moscow on 20 August when he fell ill. The pilot made an emergency landing and Navalny was taken to a hospital in Omsk, where he was put on a ventilator. His press secretary Kira Yarmysh said shortly after the incident that he had begun sweating and lost consciousness after takeoff. Mobile phone footage shows him screaming in agony as medics rushed aboard. He was later moved to a German clinic, where he remains in serious but stable and non-life-threatening condition.
On Monday the clinic said that, although the specific substance was currently unknown, Navalny had fallen ill from a cholinesterase inhibitor and that he had probably been the victim of a poisoning. That contradicts the conclusion of the hospital in Omsk. However, it tallies with claims by his supporters that tea he drank at the airport was spiked.
Yarmysh suggested that the poisoning was connected to next month’s local elections in Siberia, where Navalny had been campaigning in recent days. Others have pointed to his support for the ongoing protests in Belarus, whose president, Alexander Lukashenko, is an ally of Putin.
Navalny rose to prominence when he exposed corruption in the Russian government. He later became known as a campaigner for democracy and opposition politician. In 2013, he received 27% of the vote in the Moscow mayoral elections; he also led the Progress Party and now leads its successor, Russia of the Future. He has been arrested multiple times on often fabricated charges.
This is not the first time Navalny has been attacked. In 2017 green dye left him partially blind in one eye and in 2019 he fell ill with symptoms that one of his doctors said might indicate poisoning.
On Tuesday, the Russian government denied involvement in the incident. But Navalny’s status as Putin’s chief opponent, as well as the manner of his poisoning, triggers a sense of déjà vu. Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who reported critically on the Second Chechen War, almost died in 2004 after drinking a spiked cup of tea aboard a flight. (She was later murdered.) Two years later, Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB agent who defected to the UK and accused the FSB of staging terrorist attacks to bring Putin to power, died after polonium-210 was put in his tea. And, in 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK, almost died after being poisoned with novichok. The antidote in that instance, atropine, is also being used to treat Navalny.
If the Russian government is behind this latest incident, said US national security advisor Robert O’Brien, then “it’s something that we’re going to factor into how we deal with the Russians”. Several other Western countries have called for a criminal investigation into the attack.
Putin is regarded in the West as an autocrat who, aside from silencing and even killing his opponents, stifles free speech and rigs elections to ensure his victory. He has ruled since 2000, and, thanks to constitutional changes approved in July in a referendum of dubious
democratic integrity, is able to stay as President until 2036.