Who wanted Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dead?
By MAX SEDDON, HENRY FOYFINANCIAL TIMES
AUG. 28, 2020
4:04 PM
MOSCOW —
Alexei Navalny’s visit to Siberia last week went like most of the trips he has taken across the country to galvanize anger against President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s most popular opposition leader posed for selfies with supporters, took a dip in the Tom River, and evaded a conspicuous tail from Russian secret services.
On the flight back to Moscow, Navalny abruptly broke out in a sweat, became disoriented and collapsed in the plane’s bathroom, where he could be heard groaning in pain before he
lost consciousness. A week later, he remains in a coma after being evacuated to Berlin, where doctors said test results suggested he had been
poisoned with a cholinesterase inhibitor, whose uses range from medicines and pesticides to nerve agents.
The attack on Navalny — at least the sixth such attempt against a Russian dissident in the last five years — has provoked international condemnation on a scale not seen since the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal with the nerve agent Novichok in the U.K. in 2018.
