Alexei Navalny was poisoned. The EU calls for a transparent investigation
Rights — di Luca Cereda
The poisoning was caused by a powerful neurotoxin. Russian doctors had instead attributed Navalny's coma to a metabolic disorder.
Alexei Navalny was poisoned. The EU calls for a transparent investigation
The poisoning was caused by a powerful neurotoxin. Russian doctors had instead attributed Navalny's coma to a metabolic disorder.
Alexei Navalny died on 16 February 2024, here you can find the in-depth article on his life.
Alexei Navalny shows "traces of poisoning". This was established by tests carried out at the Berlin hospital where the Russian opposition leader is being treated, following clinical tests performed on the patient. The doctors treating Navalny do not rule out "long-term effects" on his health as a result of the poison. Alexei Navalny has been in a coma since 20 August.
Il comunicato dell’ospedale #Charité conferma i sospetti di avvelenamento per Alexei @navalny. Scelta giusta accoglierlo a Berlino
Navalny is not in danger of death. Possible damage to the nervous system
While Russian doctors had attributed Navalny's coma to a metabolic disorder, the substance found by doctors at the German hospital that poisoned Navalny is a cholinesterase inhibitor — in practice, a powerful neurotoxin. Which one, specifically, the doctors "do not yet know" and have therefore begun "a new set of analyses". In the meantime, the Russian opposition leader has undergone treatment with "atropine" — the standard antidote used in such cases. Anticholinesterases can take many forms: as anaesthetic drugs or in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, or they can be found in pesticides. But that is not all. Many inhibitors are produced by certain venomous snakes. Given their efficacy, they also form the basis of several nerve agents, such as Sarin. The German medical staff consider damage to the nervous system possible. According to the Charité hospital, however, he is not in danger of death.
L’Europa intera condivide la richiesta tedesca di chiarimenti sul caso @navalny
Earlier in the morning, the German government called for full transparency in the case of the Russian activist.
EU calls for a transparent investigation into the Navalny case
"The EU," wrote the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, "strongly condemns what appears to be an attempt on the life of Alexei Navalny. It is imperative that the Russian authorities launch an independent and transparent investigation into the poisoning of Navalny," which "the Russian people and the international community demand" to be clarified. "Those responsible must be brought to justice." "The first preliminary tests carried out by the Charité hospital in Berlin indicate that the Russian opposition leader was poisoned during his stay in Siberia," Borrell added.
The poisoning of Navalny has precedents
Navalny, known for his anti-corruption campaigns against senior government officials and for his outspoken criticism of President Vladimir Putin, had suffered physical attacks in the past. In 2011 he was arrested and imprisoned for fifteen days following protests over electoral fraud by Putin's United Russia party in the parliamentary elections. In 2017, as he was leaving his office, he was attacked with a toxic spray squirted into his eyes. In July 2019, while in prison, he reported having been poisoned by "an unknown chemical substance" and was transferred to hospital as a result.
On that occasion the authorities responded by alluding to a possible "allergic reaction" on his part, and swore that no toxic substance had been detected following thorough analyses — a claim firmly rejected by his spokesperson. The footage from those hours shows a Navalny who was in perfect health in the surveillance camera footage at the Siberian airport before departure, inside a café.
Alexei Navalny: a muckraking irritant to powerful Russians theguardian.com/world/2020/aug…
From the Borgias to the Kremlin: when poisoning is a method
The poisoning of Navalny immediately lent credence to the theory of "political" poisoning — a method of assassination that evokes distant times such as the conspiracies of the Borgias, but also times very, far too recent. In July 2003, parliamentarian and investigative journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin died within two weeks from the effects of thallium poisoning.
He had been working on an investigation into the Russian secret services. Then in 2004 it was the turn of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who accused the Kremlin of having turned the country into a police state; she survived a poisoning but was killed two years later by a firearm. More recently, in 2018 former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal was found dead alongside his daughter on a bench in the English city of Salisbury, poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.
What Navalny was doing in Siberia
Navalny was in Siberia because regional elections are due in September. He had been to Novosibirsk, a city where administrative power is not weak and where a discontent that unsettles the Kremlin is simmering. He then travelled to Tomsk, a predominantly university city where opposition to Putin enjoys broad support. There he "risks" achieving a strong electoral result. Navalny had been conducting, as was his custom, investigations into the corruption of certain local officials, accompanied by video exposés, documents, fierce commentary and some humorous clips. In short, he had moved with his usual audacity, causing serious problems for the Siberian nomenklatura. It must be said that, despite everything, the investigations he conducted were politically useful to Putin for "cleaning house" within his own movement.
Minsk, Moscow and Navalny. Is there a connection?
With it still to be established that what happened to Alexei Navalny is in all respects a poisoning, the question of who ordered it is being considered. Putin? But why create a martyr around whom to rally popular indignation and anger? Someone within the Kremlin tsar's party seeking to gain points in the internal power struggle shaking Moscow? As for the various hypotheses such as an allergy or drugs, one cannot then explain the behaviour of the hospital, the mystery surrounding the analyses and diagnoses, or the puzzling decision to request a medical flight from Germany only to send it back. Scepticism is a natural response.
One element, however, embodies the role of a suspicious coincidence: the Belarusian crisis. The street protests and factory demonstrations against Lukashenko represent a dilemma for Putin. Whether or not to firmly support the dictator, with the risk of international repercussions from the West. Amid this uncertainty, Putin must protect himself at home by undermining the most dangerous potential opponent who goes by a name and a surname: Alexei Navalny.