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New suspected poisoning refocuses on threats against Putin opponents

2020-08-20T22:25:19.878Z


Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has long recognized the risks of standing up to the Kremlin: he has been repeatedly imprisoned and has spent long periods in custody for ...


Kremlin critic hospitalized after suspected poisoning 3:18

(CNN) –– Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has long recognized the risks of standing up to the Kremlin: The anti-corruption activist has been repeatedly jailed and spent long periods in custody for organizing political protests.

But the news that Navalny became seriously ill this Thursday due to an alleged poisoning generated a new shock for Russian society. Although doctors have yet to conclusively determine the cause of his illness, the possibility that he has been poisoned raises troubling parallels with some of the most blatant political assassinations in Russia's recent past.

Alexander Litvinenko in a London hospital on November 20, 2006, three days before his death.

International audiences can recall two cases: the murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006, and the attack with a nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018.

Both cases involved strange poisons and specific people who were considered irritating to the Kremlin. The substance used to end Litvinenko's life was a rare radioisotope, polonium-210. In Salisbury, while former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fell ill with Novichok, a military grade nerve agent. A couple from Great Britain, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, were also exposed to the substance. Sturgess subsequently died.

The Kremlin has consistently denied involvement in these two high-profile attacks. But Western governments, independent investigators and Russian observers see a consistent pattern of involvement by the Russian state in assassinations inside and outside of Russia.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK.

Before Navalny rose to prominence, the most visible opposition leader in Russia was Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister. In 2015, Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge within sight of the Kremlin. That event sparked worldwide rejection, and although a court sentenced five Chechen men to lengthy prison terms for the murder, Nemtsov supporters say those responsible for ordering his murder ultimately escaped justice.

Navalny has also faced physical threats. In 2017, he lost the vision in one of his eyes after being attacked with an antiseptic green dye. He was hospitalized last year after an unknown chemical affected him while in police custody. He has spoken openly to the press about the possibility of a murder.

However, the possible poisoning of the opposition leader on Thursday has at first glance some similarities to another known case: the 2004 poisoning of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian investigative journalist.

Navalny began to feel ill, said his spokesman Kira Yarmysh, during a flight back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, forcing an emergency landing in Omsk. According to the spokeswoman, Navalny drank black tea in an airport cafeteria before takeoff and the airline said she did not drink anything while on board.

  • LEE: Alexey Navalny, Russian opposition leader, is hospitalized after suspected poisoning, reports spokesman

That is reminiscent of the 2004 incident, when Politkovskaya also fell ill while flying to southern Russia amid a hostage crisis in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region. Its editor told the Committee to Protect Journalists at the time that Politkovskaya had not eaten anything before the trip and only drank tea on the plane.

Politkovskaya survived the poisoning but was killed in her stairwell in 2006. At the time, the journalist had been deeply investigating human rights violations in Russia's campaign against insurgents in the North Caucasus.

Navalny is well known as an activist, but his research is what has turned out to be the biggest thorn in the side for some powerful people in Russia. His investigative videos on the apparent inexplicable wealth of top government officials have especially drawn the ire of the Kremlin. A video about former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had more than 35 million views on YouTube.

More recently, Navalny focused on Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked oligarch who is being penalized by the United States for interference in US elections. Navalny said recently that he decided to shut down his nonprofit research organization after a company affiliated with Prigozhin filed a major lawsuit against him and his foundation.

Navalny, Russia's opponent 2:30

The Kremlin routinely rejects Navalny's accusations of widespread government corruption, and Navalny himself cannot run for political office because of his criminal conviction in a fraud case, a ruling that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) he ruled that he was politically motivated.

But the apparent poisoning of Navalny also comes as Russian civil society is engrossed in nearby events: the massive protests that have swept Belarus over an apparent fraud in the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko.

In recent days, Navalny has made prominent coverage of events in Belarus through his online programs, and has spoken out strongly in support of the opposition in that country. In his opinion, it is clear that Lukashenko's confrontation with his own people is the harbinger of a potentially larger fight: some future confrontation between Putin and a motivated, well-organized and massive opposition.

Attacks Poisoning Opposition Vladimir Putin

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-08-20

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