#Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny poisoned, aide says

Russian opposition party leader and vocal Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny is believed to have been poisoned Wednesday night, his spokeswoman said.

Navalny fell ill on a flight back to Moscow and his condition devolved at the hospital, where he is unconscious and in intensive care, according to a tweet from his press secretary, Kira Yarmysh.

“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into the tea,” Yarmysh wrote in Russian.

“It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid.”

Navalny was also hospitalized in July 2019 after getting sick at a detention facility where he was serving time for calling an unsanctioned protest.

Hospital staff attributed Navalny’s ailments to an allergic reaction, but Navalny’s physician for several years, Anastasiya Vasilyeva, had said his patient was poisoned.

Navalny has dozens of prior arrests, and in October, the Kremlin classified his nonprofit, the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, as a foreign agent, The Daily Beast reported.