Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny took part in a rally in Moscow on Feb. 29.
Photo: shamil zhumatov/ReutersMOSCOW—Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s political elite, is unconscious and undergoing treatment at a Siberian hospital after being poisoned, his spokeswoman said.
He started feeling ill after he had tea early Thursday before a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter. The plane made an emergency landing in the nearby city of Omsk, where Mr. Navalny was admitted to the hospital, she added.
“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed in his tea; it was the only thing he drank all morning,” Ms. Yarmysh said. “Now Alexei is unconscious.”
Mr. Navalny was hooked up to artificial ventilation at the hospital and was in a critical condition, she said, adding that his supporters had called the police.
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Mr. Navalny campaigned forcefully earlier this year against a series of constitutional amendments passed in July, which included a provision to allow Mr. Putin to potentially rule until 2036. He had called for Russians to boycott a referendum on the amendments, saying the vote would be falsified regardless of the real outcome.
Since the constitutional vote earlier this summer, other opposition figures have been detained by authorities and had their properties raided.
Last year, Mr. Navalny said he was poisoned in police custody after supporting protests against the Kremlin in central Moscow. The Wall Street Journal couldn’t independently confirm this claim.
Kremlin critics have been hospitalized with suspected poisoning before. Vocal opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza was poisoned in 2015 and 2017, before recovering. In 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter were poisoned in the U.K., where they lived.
Anatoliy Kalinichenko, deputy chief doctor at the Omsk hospital to which Alexei Navalny was admitted, spoke to the media on Thursday.
Photo: Evgeniy Sofiychuk/Associated PressWrite to Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com
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