Russian Opposition Figure Navalny Poisoned

By Samantha Schell
International News Writer

Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on August 20th during a flight to Moscow. He fell into a coma and was then airlifted to a hospital in Berlin, Germany. Tests run by two independent labs in Sweden and France, along with tests performed by the Russian military, that proved he was poisoned by Novichok. Novichok agent is a chemical weapon that was invented sometime between 1971 and 1993 in a Russian chemical lab. The substance was most likely mixed into his tea. Russia has not yet opened an investigation into the poisoning.

Navalny has led a nationwide protest against Russia’s government in the past. In December 2011 he was arrested for the protest that he planned but was released in time to speak at another protest on December 24th after the election. As many as 120,000 people were in attendance. He was then arrested again in 2013 for charges of embezzlement. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, which many believe was politically motivated. This conviction kept him from mounting a presidential campaign against Putin in 2018.

This is not the first time an opponent of President Putin has been poisoned. In 2018 Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who supplied critical information to the British, had Novichok put on his doorknob. Skripal and his daughter were hospitalized and moved to New Zealand under new identities once they recovered. In 2006 another critic of Putin, Alexander Litvinenko, was killed from a radioactive agent being placed in his tea. The poising took place in the UK, and the British Government sought to convict two men for the murder, but Russia refused to extradite them. In 2004 Viktor Yushchenko was running against the Russian favored incumbent for the presidency of Ukraine. His skin was disfigured by the poison Dioxin. In the same year Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist, was poisoned by drinking a cup of tea. She survived but was shot dead two years later. If Russia’s recent history of poisoning is anything to go on, Alexei Navalny is unlikely to see justice for the crimes against him, and he is likely to not be the last Putin critic to suffer similar action.

Contact Samantha at samantha.schell@student.shu.edu