The TLDR: Russia’s most prominent Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma. Doctors suspect he may have been poisoned, and are trying to save his life. If Navalny dies, this will be the latest in a series of assassinations of journalists, politicians and activists—all of whom opposed President Putin. And many of them involved poison. We look at what happened to Navalny, and why he is a threat to Putin right now.

Who is Navalny now?

The 44-year old lawyer-turned-activist runs an organisation called Anti-Corruption Foundation, which has done several exposes on Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. He has also led massive protests against the government, starting in 2011. Navalny has been repeatedly arrested in the past. And he has been the target of several attacks—including a suspected poisoning during a prison stint in 2019. Earlier in 2017, he was assaulted with a toxic dye that nearly blinded him in one eye.

And he’s been poisoned? How?

He was in a region called Tomsk to help support anti-Putin candidates. On his way back to Moscow, he ordered a cup of black tea at the airport. He was photographed by a local DJ just as he was getting ready to take a sip:

On the flight, Navalny became suddenly and rapidly unwell—and started howling in pain. The pilot made an emergency landing, and Navalny was rushed off in a stretcher to the hospital. See Guardian’s footage from the plane and after below.

The reason why he was most likely poisoned, according to his team: “We suspect that Alexei was poisoned by something mixed into [his] tea. It was the only thing he drank since morning. Doctors are saying that the toxic agent absorbed faster through the hot liquid."

So they poison people like this in Russia?

A long list: For years now, Putin’s critics have suffered from a series of unfortunate events.

• In 2006, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and killed in a lift at her apartment building. It marked the beginning of Putin’s clampdown on the media which continues to this day.
• Also killed in 2006: Russian spy-turned-critic Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210, served in a cup of tea.
• In 2015, the biggest Opposition leader and democracy activist Boris Nemtsov was gunned down on the Red Square and in broad daylight. 
• Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza is still alive but he collapsed twice—once in 2015 and then in 2017—due to suspected incidents of poisoning.
• Another likely case of poisoning: Putin critic Pyotr Verzilov who fell ill after a court hearing, losing his sight and ability to speak in 2018.
• In the same year, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent in Britain—but mercifully survived.

Point to note: It’s not just political opponents who meet an unfortunate end. Three doctors mysteriously died after falling out of windows—and at least two of them had spoken up against the government’s Covid policies. 

A most favourite weapon: Of the many methods of assasination, poison has long been favoured by Russians. The reason: It’s easy to use and hide—and it can either kill or leave the person incapacitated for a long time. As an expert tells Foreign Policy:

“One of poison’s great virtues for the politically minded murderer is their capacity to combine easy deniability and vicious theatricality. Even while the murderer denies any role, perhaps with a sly wink, the victim dies a horrific and often lengthy death. A message in a poison bottle.”

Soviet labs worked for decades to develop tasteless, untraceable poisons—which are now being deployed by Putin. As of now, the substances identified in such attacks include: “radioactive polonium-210; heavy metals; gelsemium, a rare Himalayan plant toxin; and Novichuk, a military nerve agent lethal to the touch.”

Yikes, so why Navalny? And why now?

According to the New Yorker, there are two possible explanations. One: an over-eager Putin lackey trying to eliminate a man who has long been a thorn in his master’s side. Two: the growing pro-democracy protests in neighbouring Belarus—once a part of the Soviet Union, and now tightly controlled by Moscow. 

“Belarusians have shown that, even in a country where electoral institutions, the media, and civil society are almost entirely dominated by an autocrat, people can still claim the power to say that they’ve had enough. An autocracy has no way to protect itself from that kind of mass protest—except, perhaps, by killing the presumptive leader of the uprising to come.”

Also, protests within Russia: Since July, thousands of protesters have participated in anti-Putin rallies in the far east province of Khabarovsk. And they are spreading. The reason for the rising anger: declining real wages, stagnant living standards, and poor public services. Also: Putin’s poor handling of the pandemic, which has pushed his popularity ratings to a historic low. A journalist told the Washington Post:

“The main thing that makes people very angry is that nobody is paying attention to them. And now the slogans are against Putin. People are not afraid anymore… He’s not popular, and people believe it’s time for him to resign because he’s been in power too long. That’s enough.”

That’s not good news for a President who has just pushed through a constitutional referendum that will keep him in power for the next twenty years.

Reading list

The Guardian has the best overview. New Yorker offers the most concise analysis. BBC News profiles Alexei Navalny. The Guardian also has a blow-by-blow account of the poisoning. New York Times has an excellent piece on Moscow’s history of poisonings. Foreign Policy explains why it is the weapon of choice. Vox takes a closer look at the mysterious deaths of three doctors.