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Aleksei Navalny Was Probably Poisoned, German Doctors Say Aleksei Navalny, a Putin Critic, Was Poisoned, German Doctors Say
(about 3 hours later)
BERLIN — Aleksei A. Navalny, the prominent Russian dissident who fell ill while on a flight to Moscow last week, was in all likelihood poisoned, German doctors said on Monday, though they have yet to identify the specific agent. BERLIN — Aleksei A. Navalny, the prominent Russian dissident who fell ill while on a flight to Moscow last week, was poisoned, German doctors said on Monday, though they have yet to identify the specific agent.
In a statement, doctors at the Charité hospital in Berlin, where Mr. Navalny was taken on Saturday, said they expected him to survive the attack, but that it was too early to gauge the long-term effects, including possible damage to the nervous system. He remained in a medically induced coma, in stable condition. Outlining the elements of an attack that once again cements Russia’s status as an outlaw nation, doctors at the Charité hospital in Berlin, where Mr. Navalny was taken on Saturday, said they expected him to survive.
While not able to pinpoint the exact poison, the doctors said tests showed it came from a group known as cholinesterase inhibitors, sometimes used to treat Alzheimer’s Disease. But they said it was too early to gauge the long-term effects of the attack, including possible damage to his nervous system. Mr. Navalny remained in a medically induced coma, in stable condition.
While not able to pinpoint the exact poison, the doctors said tests showed it came from a group of chemicals known as cholinesterase inhibitors that interfere with the functioning of the nervous system. While they are used as a medicine — to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia — in some forms they are also used as pesticides and can be highly toxic.
They said the antidote for that class of substances is atropine, which is also used against certain types of nerve gas. They did not say whether Mr. Navalny had been treated with atropine before his arrival in Germany.They said the antidote for that class of substances is atropine, which is also used against certain types of nerve gas. They did not say whether Mr. Navalny had been treated with atropine before his arrival in Germany.
Mr. Navalny, who challenged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in the 2018 election, and has waged a long battle to publicize rampant official corruption, has been attacked at least twice before, including one assault that left him mostly blind in one eye. After the announcement in Berlin, the ministry of health for the Siberian region of Omsk issued a statement challenging the diagnosis, saying Mr. Navalny’s symptoms were not consistent with cholinesterase inhibitors.
He fell ill while returning from a trip to Russia’s Far East, where he was organizing opposition candidates and strategy for upcoming regional and local elections. His plane was then forced to make an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he was taken to a local hospital. And a state news agency, RIA, carried a statement from a pro-Kremlin group that took the opportunity to invoke World War II. The group, Strong Russia, criticized the German government for providing treatment for Mr. Navalny but not for elderly Russians who suffered as children during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
His family and supporters organized an air ambulance to take him to Germany, but the Russian doctors delayed for nearly 48 hours, saying his medical condition was too unstable for him to be moved. That stance drew bitter criticism from the Navalny camp, which accused the doctors of employing stalling tactics to give the toxins enough time to drain from his system. “Of course, as with any sick person, we wish Navalny a quick recovery,” said the statement. “Has Berlin ever sent an air ambulance for a former detainee in the concentration camps?”
Mr. Navalny was flown to Germany at the invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Though Germany enjoys strong economic and cultural ties to Russia, it has not shied from criticizing policies of Mr. Putin, and even before Mr. Navalny arrived in Berlin, the German government appeared to be taking extra precautions to ensure his safety. Mr. Navalny, who challenged President Vladimir V. Putin in the 2018 Russian election, and has waged a long battle to publicize rampant official corruption, has been attacked at least twice before. One assault that left him mostly blind in one eye.
Mr. Navalny fell ill last week while returning from a trip to Russia’s Far East, where he was organizing opposition candidates and strategy for regional and local elections. His plane made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he was taken to a local hospital.
Mr. Navalny's family and supporters organized an air ambulance to take him to Germany, but Russian doctors delayed for nearly 48 hours, saying his medical condition was too unstable for him to be moved. That stance drew bitter criticism from the Navalny camp, which accused the doctors of employing stalling tactics to give the toxins enough time to drain from his system.
Mr. Navalny was flown to Germany at the invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Though Germany enjoys strong economic and cultural ties to Russia, it has not shied from criticizing Mr. Putin’s policies, and even before Mr. Navalny arrived in Berlin, the German government appeared to be taking extra precautions to ensure his safety.
Ms. Merkel and her foreign minister, Heiko Maas, called on Russia to launch an immediate investigation but did not offer any harsher criticism.
“Given Mr. Navalny’s prominent role in Russia’s political opposition, the authorities there are now urgently called upon to investigate this crime to the last detail — and to do so in full transparency,” they said in a statement. “Those responsible must be identified and held accountable.
Minutes before landing, his plane was rerouted from Schönefeld Airport to Tegel Airport, and the ambulance that brought him from the tarmac to the Charité hospital was escorted by the police. A police van and several officers have been stationed outside the hospital’s main entrance since Saturday.Minutes before landing, his plane was rerouted from Schönefeld Airport to Tegel Airport, and the ambulance that brought him from the tarmac to the Charité hospital was escorted by the police. A police van and several officers have been stationed outside the hospital’s main entrance since Saturday.
“It was clear that after he arrived here, security measures had to be put in place,” Ms. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters on Monday, before the hospital released its statement. “We are dealing with a patient who appears, with a certain level of probability, to have been the target of a poisoning attack.”“It was clear that after he arrived here, security measures had to be put in place,” Ms. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters on Monday, before the hospital released its statement. “We are dealing with a patient who appears, with a certain level of probability, to have been the target of a poisoning attack.”
“Unfortunately there are one or more examples of such poisonings in recent Russian history,” Mr. Seibert added. “Unfortunately,” Mr. Seibert noted, “there are one or more examples of such poisonings in recent Russian history.”
The Russian security services are suspected of having used a range of poisons in attempts to eliminate opponents, although Russian officials have consistently denied any evidence of poisoning. On Monday, doctors in Omsk who treated Mr. Navalny last week again denied that they had found any evidence of toxins in his system. The Russian security services are suspected of having used a range of poisons in attempts to eliminate opponents, although Russian officials have consistently denied any evidence of poisoning.
Before the doctors’ statement in Berlin, the Russian doctor who had directed Mr. Navalny’s treatment told journalists that he had initially considered poisoning as a cause for his sudden collapse into a coma but later ruled it out, based on laboratory results. Many of those victims have been stricken after drinking tea.
Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist, fell ill after taking a cup of tea on a domestic flight. She survived, but was shot and killed in her apartment elevator two years later.
A former Russian agent turned Kremlin critic Alexander V. Litvinenko, succumbed after ingesting a radioactive isotope, Polonium 210, while having tea with two Russian agents. British investigators later determined that the killing had most likely been ordered by Mr. Putin.
Numerous, less prominent figures have been felled under mysterious circumstances, and one of the most high-profile Putin critics, Boris Y. Nemtsov, was gunned down just a stone’s throw from the Kremlin. While miscellaneous hit men have been charged in some of the killings, those giving the orders have never been identified.
For the last decade, Mr. Navalny has been Mr. Putin’s most unflinching critic, leading opposition rallies and publishing reports on high-level corruption among Mr. Putin and his cronies — most memorably a lengthy video showing the multiple mega-properties, yachts and other luxuries amassed up by the former prime minister Dimitri A. Medvedev.
Having persevered despite numerous arrests, he likes to call Mr. Putin’s political party the party of “scoundrels and thieves” and has accused the president of trying to turn Russia into a “feudal state.”
Mr. Navalny’s needling criticism of Mr. Putin has never posed a serious electoral threat to the Russian leader, and Mr. Putin remains popular with many Russians. But Mr. Navalny has dominated Russian opposition politics since he led large antigovernment street protests in 2011.
And Mr. Navalny cannily used social media to build a tenacious movement even after much of the independent news media had been squelched and other critics were driven into exile or killed.
Like the German doctors, the Russian doctors who initially treated Mr. Navalny said they had looked at poisoning as the cause for his sudden collapse. Then they ruled it out, they said.
“The diagnosis of poisoning was one of the first,” the deputy head doctor of the hospital, Anatoly Kalinichenko, said. “That diagnosis was with us until the end of the first day, before we received answers from two laboratories, in Moscow and Tomsk, that chemical or toxic substances, which could be called poisons or the byproducts of poisons, were not identified. So we moved on from the diagnosis of poisoning.”“The diagnosis of poisoning was one of the first,” the deputy head doctor of the hospital, Anatoly Kalinichenko, said. “That diagnosis was with us until the end of the first day, before we received answers from two laboratories, in Moscow and Tomsk, that chemical or toxic substances, which could be called poisons or the byproducts of poisons, were not identified. So we moved on from the diagnosis of poisoning.”
The hospital’s head doctor, Aleksandr Murakhovsky, had released a statement saying Mr. Navalny had likely suffered from a metabolic disorder brought on by low blood sugar, but that doctors were also considering other diagnoses. He ruled out poison. The hospital’s head doctor, Aleksandr Murakhovsky, released a statement saying Mr. Navalny was most likely suffering from a metabolic disorder brought on by low blood sugar, though he said doctors were also considering other diagnoses. He, too, ruled out poison.
On Monday, the doctors said they were treating Mr. Navalny for his symptoms and his loss of consciousness, without settling on a cause. It was unclear whether he had been treated with atropine, the antidote identified by German doctors, and if not what consequences the lack of treatment might mean for the opposition leader’s health. Dr. Murakhovsky said he and several specialists had revealed more details of Mr. Navalny’s illness to his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, than they had in their public comments, but on the condition that she not disclose what she was told. This was done from “humanitarian motives,” he said.
On Monday, Dr. Murakhovsky, said he and several specialist doctors had revealed more details of Mr. Navalny’s illness to his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, than they had in their public comments, but on the condition that she not disclose what she was told. “We agreed that we would tell the relatives more than what I said at the press conference,” Dr. Murakhovsky said. “They promised they would not disclose this information.”
This was done from “humanitarian motives,” he said. “We agreed that we would tell the relatives more than what I said at the press conference,” he said. “They promised they would not disclose this information.” During Mr. Navalny’s stay in the Siberian hospital, men who appeared to be with the security services but were not in uniform milled about the hallways, and came and went from Dr. Murakhovsky’s office, videos and pictures showed.
During Mr. Navalny’s stay in the Siberian hospital, men apparently with the security services but not in uniform milled about the hallways, and came and went from Dr. Murakhovsky’s office, videos and pictures showed.
Their presence alarmed Mr. Navalny’s wife, his personal physician and a spokeswoman, who said they worried the security services were dictating his care.Their presence alarmed Mr. Navalny’s wife, his personal physician and a spokeswoman, who said they worried the security services were dictating his care.
Asked about these plainclothes men in his office, Mr. Murakhovsky said he did not know who they were, but that they had not influenced his treatment decisions. “I had a lot of people in my office, but I cannot say what they were doing there,” he said. “They came and asked, ‘Is everything all right?’ and I said ‘Everything is all right.’ And they left. They were just interested.” Asked about these plainclothes men in his office, Dr. Murakhovsky said that he did not know who they were, but that they had not influenced his treatment decisions.
Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Moscow. “I had a lot of people in my office, but I cannot say what they were doing there,” he said. “They came and asked, ‘Is everything all right?’ And I said, ‘Everything is all right.’ And they left.
“They were just interested.”
Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin and Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow.