From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Russian doctors say no poison detected in jailed Kremlin critic
Doctors at a Russian state facility say they have found no traces of poison in jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was hospitalized at the weekend with suspicious symptoms.
Navalny’s personal physician said Monday his condition suggested “poisoning by some unknown chemical substance” after he was rushed to a hospital from jail, where he is being held over an unauthorized protest.
However Alexei Tokarev, head of the state Sklifosovsky Institute for Emergency Care, which has a toxicology lab, says the lab ran Navalny’s samples and “poisoning substances were not found,” according to Russian news agencies.
Navalny was sent back to his jail cell Monday despite the protests of his doctor, who said he could be at risk of coming into contact with a poison again there.
The jailed politician — one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics — said the official explanation of his symptoms as an “allergy” did not make sense as he had never suffered from any allergies.
Others in the Russian opposition voiced concern that it may have been an attempt on Navalny’s life, the latest such case of an opposition figure falling ill with unexplained symptoms.
— AFP
