Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was poisoned, Berlin hospital says
Berlin (CNN)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.
The specific substance used to poison Navalny has not yet been identified, according to the hospital.
Cholinesterase inhibitors are widely used as dementia medications. They are also found in pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agents, including sarin and Novichok, which was used in a 2018 attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. They can slow the heart rate and are toxic to the brain.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/24/europe/alexey-navalny-germany-poison-grm-intl/index.html