Corruption fighter and Putin’s political opponent, Alexei Navalny, was admitted to a Siberian hospital in Omsk. He was allegedly poisoned at the airport when he was there to catch a flight to Moscow. A close friend of Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, says that she is pretty sure that someone was trying to kill him.
Later, during his journey to Moscow, he fell severely ill on his flight back. After an emergency landing, the flight took Alexei Navalny to the intensive care of an Omsk hospital. This happened after he drank a poisoned cup of tea at the Tomsk Airport; he had a flight on Thursday, August 20.
A co-passenger of Alexei Navalny on his flight was a Russian DJ who managed to record LIVE footage of medical experts rushing in to treat him. Later, local news channels covered the news, and everyone got to know that Navalny was on oxygen support. From the footage collected by the DJ, it is clear that the corruption fighter and Putin opponent was in so much pain. His cries were loud while he was lying on a stretcher under the observation of doctors.
Supporters of Alexei Navalny recall instances of attempts to murder
On the other hand, friend and doctor Kira Yarmysh took her Twitter account to speak about the incident. She wrote that it did not take her more than a moment to understand what had precisely gone wrong. Moreover, she could recall what had happened to Alexei when he stayed at one of the detention centers. Just like the enemies poisoned him, they have attempted to the same with Alexei Navalny as well. The reason is constant in both cases, and Navalny is now probably the strongest opponent to Russia’s now President, Putin.
Former lawyer Dmitry Gudkov, a friend of Navalny, says that it is nothing but an attempt to murder. In his interview with the Daily Beast, he says that he and Navalny knew since Nemtsov’s murder, which the Kremlin’s next target was. However, both of them avoided the discussion every time. Gudkov also says that the list of people losing their lives for the same reason is quite long. Some people were shot directly, while some were victims of poisoning.
More examples include mysterious deaths of people who suddenly fell from buildings and other absurd instances. He then recalls the death of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who was also poisoned on a flight to Beslan. While she successfully survived the poisoning, Anna was soon shot in the elevator of her residential building.
Dmitry Gudkov is trying to join the dots
According to Dmitry Gudkov, Navalny, being a strong Putin opponent has always been number one on their enemy target list. Therefore, there was no way to save him from such attacks. Even if he has a few bodyguards following him all the time, the chances of facing such attacks are relatively high. Presently, Alexei Navalny is fighting for his life is nothing short of a nightmare. Surrounding him are FSB agents and police officers. In the Daily Beast interview, Yarmysh was also present and said that the Kremlin was evil enough to commit more heinous crimes. As per a picture clicked at the Tomsk airport’s Vienna Café, Navalny is spotted sipping tea from a red mug.
Soon, a political website MediaZona’s revelation came out. The photographer was the same Russian DJ whose camera footage went viral over social media platforms. His name is Pavel Lebedev. Later, he was on the same flight in which Navalny was also traveling to Moscow, and soon the experience took a tragic turn. Pavel Lebedev’s next Instagram post was a recorded video in which he said that Navalny was moaning inside the toilet. The DJ posted a second video in which he mentioned that the dissident was still in pain. However, he took down these videos later. After this incident, Navalny’s friend and deputy of Moscow Municipality Ilya Yashin say that she is entirely heartbroken to hear the news. The Daily Beast says that Yashin is praying for her friend’s well-being.
Present condition of Alexei Navalny
According to a spokesperson reporting about the incident, the doctors were all busy treating him. So, the root cause of Alexei Navalny’s illness was still unclear. On the other hand, Gudkov points out that the attack on Navalny may be an outcome of the revolutionary violence in Belarus. Moreover, the ongoing protests against Vladimir Putin in Russia’s far eastern part may also be the root cause. Medical experts attending Putin’s opponent Navalny say that the poison was mixed with the tea. Moreover, his body has absorbed it so fast because the beverage was hot. Yarmysh recalls an attack on Alexei Navalny last year during his stay in the detention center. Back then, also, the enemies wanted to poison him to death, and they tried it all over again.
In October 2019, Kremlin, the alleged mastermind behind the attack, defamed Navalny’s Fighting Corruption Foundation. He designated the organization as a foreign spy, therefore successfully hindering all its work. A few weeks before this, a special police force had forcefully raided the office seizing several computers. As a reply to Kremlin’s initiative, a brave Putin opponent Navalny posted a video of his team chilling in office after the raid. He mentioned that they are unstoppable and fearless irrespective of the pressure they face from the Putin government.
Allegations against the Putin government
The poisoning attack makes more sense because Navalny accused Kremlin environmental inspector Svetlana Radionova as corrupt a few weeks back. In a YouTube video that reached over 3 million people, inspirational Putin opponent Navalny says that Svetlana’s massive wealth and the property has no justification. Besides, poisoning has always been Putin’s favorite method of washing hands on enemies. The fact becomes more emphatic if you can recall the incident of another Putin opponent Alexander Litvinenko’s murder. Someone had poisoned his tea with isotope polonium-210, a radioactive element. In the same way, opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza is also a poison-attack survivor. Moreover, Viktor Yushchenko, former Ukrainian President, suffered permanent damages on face after contamination from Agent Orange.
