(1 of 9) Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny takes part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia. As Russia's most determined and durable opposition figure, Alexei Navalny has employed an astute understanding of social media and an accountant's ability to wade through financial data, a knack for sardonic humor and fierce resolve in the face of repeated threats. Now, his family, friends and supporters have a new reason to worry. The 44-year-old opposition remained in grave condition in a Siberian hospital Friday more than a day after he became ill on a flight back to Moscow and fell into a coma. His allies suspect he drank poisoned tea before boarding the plane.
(2 of 9) From left, Russian former Financial Minister Alexei Kudrin, leaders of the opposition Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny attend a rally to protest against alleged vote rigging in Russia's parliamentary elections on Sakharov avenue in Moscow, Russia.
(3 of 9) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, shows a V-sign for the media in court in Moscow, Russia. As Russia's most determined and durable opposition figure, Alexei Navalny has employed an astute understanding of social media and an accountant's ability to wade through financial data, a knack for sardonic humor and fierce resolve in the face of repeated threats. Now, his family, friends and supporters have a new reason to worry. The 44-year-old opposition remained in grave condition in a Siberian hospital Friday more than a day after he became ill on a flight back to Moscow and fell into a coma. His allies suspect he drank poisoned tea before boarding the plane.
(4 of 9) Yulia, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny treats him after unknown attackers doused him with green antiseptic outside a conference venue in Moscow, Russia.
(5 of 9) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navally, center, and his wife Yulia, center right, leave a meeting that nominated him for the presidential election race in Moscow, Russia.
(6 of 9) Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking to a crowd during a political protest in Moscow, Russia.
(7 of 9) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who submitted endorsement papers necessary for his registration as a presidential candidate, center, heads to attend a meeting in the Russia's Central Election commission in Moscow, Russia.
(8 of 9) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, poses for a photo with his brother Oleg Navalny, center, after Oleg's release from prison in Naryshkino, Orel region, 380 kilometers (237 miles) south of Moscow, Russia.
(9 of 9) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, centre, attends a rally in Moscow, Russia.
August 21, 2020
Navalny, a lawyer by training, earned a reputation as a Kremlin enemy writing about official corruption. His activism expanded to organizing anti-government protests and seeking political office, and over the years he'd experienced frequent jailings, a chemical attack and an unexplained illness.
Now, his family, friends and supporters have a new reason to worry. The 44-year-old opposition remained in grave condition in a Siberian hospital Friday more than a day after he became ill on a flight back to Moscow and fell into a coma. His allies suspect he drank poisoned tea before boarding the plane.
His wife wants him moved to a clinic in Germany that has treated other Russian dissidents. After announcing that they found no poison in Navalny's system, doctors in Siberia refused to authorize the transfer, saying his condition was too unstable. But when German specialists later examined the politician and said he was fit for transfer, the Russian doctors reversed themselves and said he could go.
His suffering is a shock and a worry to supporters who see him as a stalwart in Russia's beleaguered opposition. “Many times I was asked publicly and privately how I can support this terrible Navalny ... I always answered the same way: Alexei Navalny risks his life every day for his beliefs,” Grigory Chkhartishvili, a dissident author noted for detective novels written under the pen-name Boris Akunin, said on social media after Navalny's illness was announced.
Navalny began his rise to prominence by focusing on corruption in Russia’s murky mix of politics and business. In 2008, he bought shares in Russian oil and gas companies, so he could push for transparency as an activist shareholder.
Navalny’s work to expose corrupt elites had a pocketbook appeal to the Russian people's widespread sense of being cheated. Whether he was writing for his website or running for public office, his target likely better resonated with potential supporters than more abstract goals such democratic ideals and human rights.
Russia’s state-controlled television channels ignored Navalny, but his investigations of dubious contracts and officials' luxurious lifestyles got wide attention through the back channels of YouTube videos and social media posts. The information uncovered by his Fund For Fighting Corruption mostly overrode the reservations raised about Navalny's nationalist streak and his advocacy for the rights of ethnic Russians, even in opposition circles.
Navalny also understood the power of a pithy phrase and a potent image. His description of President Vladimir Putin’s power-base United Russia party as “the party of crooks and thieves” attained instant popularity. A lengthy investigation into then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s lavish country getaway boiled down to the property's well-appointed duck house; yellow duck toys soon became a way of deriding the prime minister.
The founder of two opposition political parties, he also also be flippant in the face of difficulty, tweeting sarcastic remarks from police custody or courtrooms on the many occasions he was arrested. In 2017, after an assailant threw green-hued disinfectant in his face, seriously damaging one of his eyes, Navalny joked in a video blog that people were comparing him to comic book character the Hulk.
Navalny frequently was jailed for participating in protests — or sometimes even as he headed to them. Online video reports of protests broadcast from Navalny’s studios sometimes were enlivened by on-camera police raids.
He also faced more serious legal troubles. In 2013, on the day after Navalny had registered as a candidate for Moscow mayor, he was sentenced to five years in prison for an embezzlement conviction. He was accused of stealing timber from a company in a region where he was an adviser to the reformist governor.
But in a hugely surprising move, the prosecutor’s office appealed the sentence hours later. The opposition attributed his release to the massive protests that greeted news of Navalny's imprisonment, but many observers thought it was a calculated move by authorities to make sure the mayoral election two months later carried a tint of legitimacy.
Navalny ended up placing second, an impressive performance against the incumbent mayor with the backing of Putin’s political machine and who was popular among Muscovites for improving the capital’s infrastructure and aesthetics.
The embezzlement conviction was eventually reinstated, and Navalny was convicted, along with his brother Oleg, in another embezzlement case in 2014. His brother received a 3 1/2-year prison sentence, while Navalny's sentence was suspended.
Although he did not get sent to prison, the conviction blocked Navalny from being able to carry out his plans to run against Putin in Russia's 2018 presidential election. His own legal obstacles and the widespread obstruction authorities set before other independent candidates seeking public office led Navalny and his organization to adopt a new strategy for the 2019 Moscow city council elections.
The “Smart Vote” initiative analyzed which candidate in each district appeared to have the best chance of beating United Russia's pick and tried to drum up support for that candidate. The initiative appeared to be a success, with nearly half of the city council seats going to “systemic opposition” candidates, although its effectiveness could not be quantified. Navalny intended to redeploy the same strategy in next year’s national parliament elections.
But the Moscow city council races may have foretold even worse troubles for Navalny. While jailed last summer for taking part in a pre-election protest against the exclusion of many independent candidates, Navalny became ill and was taken to a hospital.
The official version was that he had suffered an allergic reaction. His supporters and some doctors said at the time that poisoning appeared to be a more likely explanation.
(1 of 10) Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within" is photographed at his home in London. A former agent for the KGB and its post-Soviet successor agency FSB, Col. Alexander Litvinenko defected and fled to London, where he fell violently ill in 2006 after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
2 of 10) In this July 2006 file photo, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya is seen in Moscow. An investigative journalist, Politkovskaya had written critically about abuses by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces fighting separatists in Chechnya – work that earned her repeated death threats. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
(3 of 10) Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Appropriation Committee hearing on "Civil Society Perspectives on Russia." Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. was hospitalized with poisoning symptoms twice, in 2015 and 2017. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
(4 of 10) Yulia Skripal poses for the media during an interview in London. A Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, Sergei Skripal, was poisoned with military grade nerve agent Novichok in the British city of Salisbury in 2018. He and his daughter Yulia spent weeks in critical condition. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning. (Dylan Martinez/Pool via AP, File)
(5 of 10) Pyotr Verzilov, prominent member of the protest group Pussy Riot waits for his court hearing in a court in Moscow, Russia. Verzilov, a member of Russia's protest group Pussy Riot, ended up in an intensive care unit after a suspected poisoning in 2018 and had to be flown to Berlin for treatment. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
6 of 10) A man holding a placard stands in a one-person picket in front of a building of a hospital intensive care unit where Alexei Navalny was hospitalized in Omsk, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is on a hospital ventilator in a coma, after falling ill from a suspected poisoning, according to his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.
(7 of 10) Reporter Anna Politkovskaya attends a rally against war in Chechnya in downtown Moscow, seen in this October 2004 file photo. An investigative journalist, Politkovskaya had written critically about abuses by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces fighting separatists in Chechnya – work that earned her repeated death threats. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
(8 of 10) Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within", is photographed at his home in London. Prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov's killing follows the slaying over the past decade of several other high-profile critics of President Vladimir Putin and his policies. Former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, 44, became sick after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 at a London hotel in November 2006 and died three weeks later. Litvinenko had fallen out with the Russian government and became a strong critic of the Kremlin, obtaining political asylum after coming to Britain in 2000. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
9 of 10) Vladimir Kara-Murza, 35, Russian opposition activist poses for a photo in Moscow, Russia. Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. was hospitalized with poisoning symptoms twice, in 2015 and 2017. A journalist and associate of murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Kara-Murza nearly died from kidney failure in the first incident. He suspects poisoning but no cause has been determined. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning.
(10 of 10) Yulia Skripal during an interview in London. Yulia Skripal says recovery has been slow and painful, in first interview since nerve agent poisoning. A Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, Sergei Skripal, was poisoned with military grade nerve agent Novichok in the British city of Salisbury in 2018. He and his daughter Yulia spent weeks in critical condition. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a hospital in Siberia Thursday Aug. 20, 2020 after falling ill from a suspected poisoning. (Dylan Martinez/Pool via AP, File)
ALEXANDER LITVINENKO A former agent for the KGB and post-Soviet successor agency FSB, Col. Alexander Litvinenko defected from Russia in 2000 and fled to London, where he fell violently ill six years later after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.
He died after three weeks. A British inquiry found that Russian agents had killed Litvinenko, probably with President Vladimir Putin's approval. Russia denied any involvement. Before his death, Litvinenko told journalists that the FSB was still operating a secret Moscow poisons laboratory dating from the Soviet era. He was one of several former Russian intelligence officers to accuse Moscow of being behind the dioxin poisoning of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko during his 2004 election campaign.
At the time of Litvinenko’s poisoning, he had been investigating the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya three weeks earlier. ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA An investigative journalist, Politkovskaya had written critically about abuses by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces fighting separatists in Chechnya – work that earned her repeated death threats.
In 2004, she fell severely ill and lost consciousness after drinking a cup of tea. She said she was deliberately poisoned to prevent her from covering the 2004 seizure of a school in southern Russia by Islamic separatists.
Two years later, Politkovskaya was shot to death outside her Moscow apartment building, a slaying that drew widespread condemnation in the West. Five men were sentenced for carrying out the killing but no one was convicted for ordering it.
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. was hospitalized with poisoning symptoms twice, in 2015 and 2017. A journalist and associate of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed in 2015 while crossing a bridge near the Kremlin, and oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Kara-Murza nearly died from kidney failure in the first incident. He suspects poisoning but no cause has been determined.
He was taken to a hospital with a sudden, similar illness in 2017 and put into a medically induced coma. His wife said doctors confirmed he was poisoned. Kara-Murza survived, and police have refused requests to investigate the case, according to his lawyer.
SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL A Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, Sergei Skripal fell ill in the British city of Salisbury in 2018. Authorities said Skripal and his adult daughter, Yulia, were poisoned with the military grade nerve agent Novichok. The two spent weeks in critical condition.
Britain put the blame squarely on Russian intelligence, but Moscow denied any role. Putin called Skripal a “scumbag" of no interest to the Kremlin because he was tried in Russia and exchanged in a spy swap in 2010.
Britain charged two Russian men with the poisoning. They claimed they had visited Salisbury as tourists and denied any involvement in the attack, which came amid revelations about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
PYOTR VERZILOV Verzilov, a member of Russian protest group Pussy Riot, ended up in an intensive care unit after a suspected poisoning in 2018 and had to be flown to Berlin for treatment. German doctors treating him said a poisoning was “highly plausible.” He eventually recovered.
Verzilov, his partner and two other Pussy Riot members had served jail time earlier that year for running onto the field during soccer’s World Cup final in Moscow to protest excessive Russian police powers. He has also served time on other charges that he calls politically motivated.
Subjects: General news, Government and politics, Poisoning, Diseases and conditions People. Vladimir Putin, Alexander Litvinenko, Viktor Yushchenko, Pyotr Verzilov Locations. Moscow, Russia, Eastern Europe, Europe Organisations. Russia government
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