Tests on Alexei Navalny indicate that the Russian anti-corruption campaigner was poisoned, according to the German hospital that's treating him.
Navalny is in serious, but stable condition, according to a statement Monday from Berlin's Charite hospital. He was evacuated from Russia on Saturday. He has been in an artificial coma since Thursday after falling ill on a plane returning to Moscow from Tomsk.
Doctors found evidence of poisoning through a substance related to cholinesterase inhibitors. The specific substance wasn't immediately known and will require further testing to be identified, Charite said.
The patient is being treated with the antidote atropine. The outcome of the illness remains uncertain and long-term consequences, especially in the area of the nervous system, can't be ruled out at this point, the hospital said.
The 44-year-old was in the city meeting local activists and opposition candidates ahead of regional elections set for September. His sudden illness raised suspicions after a string of Kremlin critics fell victim to poisoning in recent years.
Germany reiterated its demand that Russian authorities provide a full explanation for what happened to Navalny. Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said that this must be "down to the very last detail with full transparency."
"The suspicion is that somebody severely poisoned Mr. Navalny, of which unfortunately there are one or two other examples in recent Russian history," Seibert said at a regular news conference in Berlin. "That's why the world is taking this suspicion very seriously."
Dissident security service officer Alexander Litvinenko died in London after consuming tea laced with polonium in 2006 and ex-spy Sergei Skripal survived an assassination attempt with a weapons-grade nerve agent, Novichok, in England's Salisbury in 2018. U.K. officials linked both attacks to the Russian state.
Additionally, Merkel has confronted Putin over the August 2019 murder of a political opponent in Berlin, a killing that German officials blame on the Russian government.
Navalny became Russia's most prominent opposition figure during 2011-2012 protests against Putin's return to the Kremlin for a third term following four years as prime minister. He was under close surveillance by Russian security services during his visit to the Siberian city just before he fell ill, Russia's Moskovsky Komsomolets reported, citing security sources.
John Sullivan, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, said earlier Monday that the case would likely come up in talks this week in Moscow between Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun and Russian officials.
"We're very concerned by the reports that Navalny may have been poisoned, and we're closely watching those developments," Sullivan told reporters on a conference call. "If Navalny has been poisoned, that would represent a very significant development for the United States."
