Alexei Navalny, Putin Critic, Airlifted to Germany

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Saturday, 22 August 2020 16:02

Written by Janet Walker

Alexei Navalny, leader of Russia of the Future Party and Vladimir Putin critic, arrived in Berlin for  intensive medical treatment after the Russian government who had initially refused to allow him to leave yielded to pressure from world leaders.

German officials announced Navalny had arrived at the Charite hospital in Berlin. He remains comatose and on a ventilator.

"A statement from the Charité hospital in Berlin said a "comprehensive medical exam" was underway on Navalny, 44, who has been in a coma since collapsing early Thursday aboard a plane from the Siberian city Tomsk to Moscow," reported to The Washington Post.

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Navalny, whom The Wall Street Journal described him as "the man Vladimir Putin fears most," fell sick on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, early Thursday, after drinking tea prior to his departure. It is believed the tea was poisoned. The flight was diverted to Omsk, in southwest Siberia, where Navalny received care.

Navalny's closest allies believe he was the victim of poisoning, directed by members of the Russian government loyal to Russian President Putin. This would be the second poisoning attack on Navalny who claimed in 2019, during his thirty-day sentence for initiating unauthorized demonstrations, that he was poisoned with a chemical agent.

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Many in Russian believe poison is simply part of Putin's termination policy when dealing with adversaries or those who present a threat to his presidency.

"The Omsk region Ministry of Health announced Saturday that no signs of known toxins such were found in Navalny's system, including barbiturates, strychnine, synthetic poisons and oxybutyrates, used to treat conditions such as narcolepsy," The Washington Post reported.

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Globally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Foreign Secretary Dominque Raab all expressed deep concern over the situation. Democratic nominee Joe Biden, and former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Actor John Cusack and Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Senator John McCain and host of The View, all expressed concern over Navalny's his condition and the refusal of the Russian government to allow him to seek medical help in Germany.

In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian secret service officer who publicly accused his superior of ordering the assassination of Boris Berezovsky, was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. He died 23 days later.

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In 2018, former KGB Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, England, the poisoned by Novichok, a chemical agent created by the Russian Federation and used in World War II. A total of five individuals who encountered the chemical were hospitalized. One, and UK citizen died.

This is a developing story.