Kremlin critic and Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny hospitalised with ‘poisoning’: spokeswoman

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is unconscious and in intensive care after apparently being poisoned.

Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a 43-year-old lawyer, was jailed in 2019 for calling an unauthorised rally amid a crackdown on anti-Kremlin protesters. In July 2019 he released this picture of himself in hospital with his face puffy, especially around the eyes, saying he’d been poisoned. Picture: navalny.com/AFP

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is unconscious and in intensive care in hospital after apparently being poisoned, his spokeswoman said Thursday.

Kira Yarmysh said Navalny was flying from Siberia to Moscow and his plane made an emergency landing after he fell ill.

“Alexei has toxic poisoning,” she wrote on Twitter. “Alexei is now in intensive care.” Yarmysh said “We think that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed in his tea. That was the only thing he drank in the morning.” “Doctors say the poison was quickly absorbed through the hot liquid,” she added.

Navalny is in the intensive care unit for toxicology patients in Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1, the TASS state news agency confirmed.

The 44-year-old, known for his anti-corruption campaigns against top officials and outspoken criticism of President Vladimir Putin, has suffered physical attacks in the past.

He suffered chemical burns to his eye in 2017 when attackers threw green dye used as a disinfectant at his face outside his office.

This incident echoes one last year in which he suffered a severe allergic reaction which some thought was a poisoning attempt.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Alexei Navalny has been a vocal critic of the president. Picture: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP

AFP