When danger sits on your stoop

[karma chamelion]

The hospital treating Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny says tests indicate that he was poisoned.

Berlin's Charite Hospital noted that the Kremlin critic was suffering from "intoxication by a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors."
It added that Navalny, who was transferred to the German capital from the Siberian city of Omsk on Saturday morning, is in an artificial coma in an intensive care unit. "His state of health is serious, but there is currently no acute danger to his life," the hospital said in a statement Monday.

https://edition.cnn.com/2...oison-grm-intl/index.html

I am really glad to hear that he's in stable albeit serious condition. What a will to survive!

[PeDe]

yes, Euronews reports it as well




German medics treating Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Germany say tests show there is evidence that he was poisoned.

In a statement released on Monday, the team of doctors at the Charité hospital said they had found “cholinesterase inhibitors” in his system, a broad range of substances that are found in several drugs, but also pesticides and nerve agents.

The specific substance Navalny was exposed to is not yet known, the hospital said, adding that “the patient is in an intensive care unit and is still in an induced coma. His health is serious but there is currently no acute danger to his life.”

The news comes as leaked reports from Russian police suggest the opposition politician was under intense government surveillance during his trip to Siberia before being hospitalised following a suspected poisoning attack, according to claims published by a Russian newspaper.

In an article by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, police sources detailed the efforts to track the opposition politician's movements during a stopover in Novosibirsk in a bid to show he was not poisoned in the city.

The newspaper also claims that Navalny had rented seven hotel rooms as well as keeping a safe house, which surveillance teams tracked down through a sushi delivery ordered by one of his associates.

He is now in a stable condition after being airlifted to Berlin's Charité hospital by plane early on Saturday for tests and further treatment, a move that was initially refused by doctors in Russia.

Supporters believe the decision to block his transfer was a "political decision" which "threatened his life", an accusation denied by the medical staff who treated him.

In a press conference on Monday, doctors at the hospital in Siberia where Navalny was first admitted before his transfer to Germany said they had not been under "external pressure".

[karma chamelion]

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and hold the perpetrators accountable after doctors found indications of a toxic substance in his body.

https://www.reuters.com/a...mlin-critic-idUSKBN25K0HM

[PeDe]

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and hold the perpetrators accountable after doctors found indications of a toxic substance in his body.

https://www.reuters.com/a...mlin-critic-idUSKBN25K0HM

God, I love her for that, the first head of state to spell it out!

[Lady Liebe]

Update on Alexey Navalny:

Novichok nerve agent used in Alexey Navalny poisoning, says German government

https://www.cnn.com/2020/...-novichok-intl/index.html

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said toxicological tests on samples taken from Navalny had been carried out at a German military laboratory, providing "unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent" from the Novichok group -- Soviet-era chemical weapons.

A hospital spokesperson said Wednesday that Navalny remains in a "serious" condition and that doctors treating him were in close contact with the Kremlin critic's wife.
"Alexey Navalny is still being treated in an intensive care unit and mechanically ventilated. A longer course of the illness is to be expected," the statement read. "Long-term consequences of severe poisoning cannot be ruled out."
The statement added that the critic's condition was improving and that his symptoms from being poisoned were declining.

[PeDe]

Now they take it a step further



Russian opposition group backed by Alexei Navalny is 'attacked with a chemical agent', with two people taken to hospital
An assailant has smashed a bottle containing a 'chemical agent' in the Siberian offices of a Russian opposition group backed by poisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny.

Two people were taken to hospital on Tuesday for tests after the masked assailants entered the offices of the Anti-Corruption Foundation in Novosibirsk, Siberia's biggest city.

The attack comes ahead of city council elections on Sunday in which the opposition group is standing against Putin's ruling party.

[PeDe]

March 22
The court announced the 9-year security prison sentence.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found guilty in cases of fraud and insulting a judge. Earlier, the prosecutor's office asked for 13 years in prison for the politician. A top aide to Alexei Navalny said Tuesday he is “very concerned” that the jailed Russian opposition leader will be assassinated after being sentenced in a Russian courtroom to nine more years in a maximum-security prison.

“There is nothing that could stop Russian security services from assassinating a person anywhere in the world, let alone in a Russian prison, which is a brutal place,” said Vladimir Ashurkov, the executive director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation

Ashurkov denounced what he called the “bizarre” sentence of Navalny, which he said was handed down by a judge he described as “a puppet of somebody sitting in the Kremlin.” But he added that the harsh sentence was the latest in a series of brutal crackdowns of dissent by the Kremlin in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine. Ashurkov said this has stoked opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s government that could ultimately lead to his downfall.

This war, this aggression, I believe, will speed up the demise of Putin's regime,” said Ashurkov. Asked if he was calling for those in Putin’s inner circle to stage a coup, Ashurkov responded: “They don’t need my calling to determine it is in their interest to get rid of the maniac and start working toward a new Russia.”







(him on the left)




Germany Calls for Immediate Release of Putin Opponent Navalny
Germany called for the immediate release of Alexey Navalny after the jailed Russian opposition leader was sentenced to nine years in a high-security prison on Tuesday. There is “nothing to justify” the judgment, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a Twitter post. “The external aggression and internal repression have reached a new dimension in Russia,” Hebestreit wrote.

Tuesday’s ruling will keep Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top critic, currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence, sidelined for longer. The latest sentencing is “a blatant act of despotism,” Germany’s foreign office later said in a statement. “It adds to the systematic instrumentalization of the Russian justice system against dissidents and the political opposition.”

Navalny’s poisoning in 2020 sparked a deterioration of relations between Germany and Russia after former Chancellor Angela Merkel sided with the anti-corruption investigator, whose exposes have targeted Putin’s inner circle. Navalny accused Putin of ordering the attack on him with the weapons-grade nerve agent Novichok. The Kremlin said at the time that it found no proof Navalny was poisoned.


My heart breaks for him, he will die in this concentration camp. I wish he had never returned to Russia!

[Diamond Lil]

My heart breaks for him too, and I wish he'd never returned as well.

[PeDe]

December 21
Alexei Navalny is missing for 16 days
Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader, is missing from prison, his team says. Lawyers for Alexei Navalny said Monday they have lost contact with the jailed Russian opposition leader, who was believed to be imprisoned in a penal colony about 150 miles east of Moscow, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August after he was found guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activities, and numerous other crimes. He was already serving 11-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility on fraud and other charges he denies.

Supporters of Navalny claim his arrest and incarceration are a politically motivated attempt to stifle his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lawyers have made several attempts to get access to two penal colonies where Navalny, who has suffered serious health issues, was believed to be, spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on X on Monday. They were informed that the 47-year-old was not at either the IK-6 or IK-7 penal colonies, Yarmysh added.

"On Friday and throughout today, neither IK-6 nor IK-7 responded to them," Yarmysh posted, adding that Navalny had been missing for six days. Navalny was last imprisoned in the IK-6 penal colony east of Moscow.

The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of Navalny’s disappearance.

“He should be released immediately. He should never have been jailed in the first place, and we’re going to work with our embassy in Moscow to see how much more we can find out,” John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesman, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Navalny was due to appear in court via a video link on Monday, Yarmysh said. Prison authorities told Navalny's team he was unable to appear for the hearing due to an electricity issue in the prison.

[PeDe]

December 24
Aleksei Navalny Found in Remote Arctic Prison, Easing Fears Over His Safety.
Supporters of the Russian opposition leader lost contact with him 20 days ago, fueling concern about his health and whereabouts. The Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny has been moved to a remote Arctic prison and “is doing well,” his spokeswoman said on Monday, ending a 20-day mystery over his whereabouts that had many supporters fearing the worst.

“We have found Aleksei,” the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media. “His lawyer saw him today.”

Ms. Yarmysh’s announcement marked the end of a frantic search through Russia’s vast prison system for Mr. Navalny, who disappeared on Dec. 5. Mr. Navalny’s exiled allies said that they had found him in the remote penal colony in the Arctic after sending more than 600 requests to prisons and other government agencies.

Ivan Zhdanov, director of Mr. Navalny’s anticorruption foundation, said that Mr. Navalny’s lawyers had looked through every pretrial detention center.

- "From the beginning, it was clear that the government wanted to isolate Aleksei, especially ahead of the election", Mr. Zhdanov said, referring to the coming presidential race in Russia that President Vladimir V. Putin is widely expected to win.

There has been no immediate response from the Kremlin to Mr. Navalny’s transfer. Throughout his absence from the public eye, the Russian government had been dismissive about his whereabouts. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said on Dec. 14 that the Kremlin had “neither the possibility nor rights nor desire to trace the fate of convicts,” referring to Mr. Navalny.

Mr. Navalny’s previous prison, in the town of Melekhovo, was only about 160 miles east of Moscow, meaning that his lawyers could drive there in a matter of hours.

In contrast, the new prison is some 1,200 miles from the capital. A train to Kharp called the Polar Arrow departs Moscow every second day and takes 44 hours to reach the town. Ivan Vostrikov, former head of Mr. Navalny’s office in the town of Tyumen, in Siberia, said he had been to Kharp several times. He described the town as “a very beautiful place with a very tough winter.”

- "It is practically impossible to run away from it — on the one side, there is tundra", he said in a post on Telegram, a social messaging app. "On the other, there are rocky mountains of Polar Urals", he added. "That’s why they put the worst criminals and serial killers there".

Russian authorities have brought forth a multitude of new charges against Mr. Navalny. According to Ms. Yarmysh, he is currently a defendant in 14 criminal cases and faces potential sentences of up to 35 years in prison.

[PeDe]

December 25
IK-3
What We Know About Navalny's New Prison Facility in the Arctic. Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been located at a prison colony in Russia’s Arctic, his team said Monday, ending a frantic three-week search for the opposition figure’s whereabouts.

Navalny’s spokeswoman said he had been found at the IK-3 prison colony in Kharp, a settlement in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district some 2,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov called IK-3, which was founded in 1961 on the site of a former Soviet gulag forced labor camp, “one of the most northern and remote” prison colonies in Russia.





Ivan Vostrikov, Navalny’s former Tyumen regional coordinator who also visited Kharp, said, “It is almost impossible to escape from there — there are hundreds of kilometers of tundra on one side, and the mountains of the Polar Urals on the other.”

Despite the colony’s physical isolation, IK-3 is connected to the Zonatelecom electronic letter service, independent Russian journalist Farida Rustamova noted.

Accounts from current and former IK-3 prisoners describe a particularly harsh environment with barebones living conditions along with physical and psychological brutality.

Some prisoners complained about a lack of clothing and other essentials in the colony, the independent media outlet Vyorstka said, citing court filings.

Convict Maxim Bakhvalov, who served a sentence in IK-3 from 2017-2020, claimed that upon his arrival at the colony, he was only provided with one pair of winter boots and a worn-out suit. Another prisoner, Sergei Chesnokov, claimed he was frequently ill after his clothes became unusable and the prison administration failed to provide replacements, Vyorstka said.

Inmate Sergei Sheikhin filed a lawsuit against the colony in 2022, complaining that his unit was confined in a cell lacking natural light and hot water.

The Yamal-Nenets autonomous district’s Prosecutor's Office has reported non-compliance with labor protection laws, fire safety regulations, and sanitary standards at IK-3 at least twice since last year.

Last year, the Federal Antimonopoly Service also included IK-3 — which can house up to 1,050 prisoners, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service — on its register of unreliable contractors.

Other prisoners reported experiencing “psychological stress” due to their conditions, Vyorstka said.

Some even accused prison guards of torture.

“When prisoners enter the colony, they are taken to the bathhouse. When a person undresses and goes to wash, the water is turned off, and people in masks come in and start beating him. With me, this lasted for about half an hour. There were about 15 people — both prisoners and employees,” said convict Mikho Khulilidze, who served his prison term in IK-3.

“They put me on the floor and beat me with batons and fists on my buttocks, my head, my face, my ribs. They did not provide any medical assistance; they will break you”, Khulilidze said.

[Hester]

Putin is a sadist and a psychopath.

[bumbershoot]

And alas, we all now know how this story has turned out.