German doctor: Pussy Riot member and Putin opponet "poisoned"

[Byker]

OK, Oleg, fess up. I wonder if Putin is related to the Borgias...
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Pussy Riot member was poisoned, German doctors say

By PATRICK REEVELL Sep 18, 2018, 10:55 AM ET

Petya Verzilov, a member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot, has likely
been poisoned, doctors treating him in Germany said Tuesday.

Verzilov, one of the early members of the group that has for years staged
provocative demonstrations against Russia's government, was rushed to a
hospital last week in Moscow after he suddenly began suffering vision and
motion loss and fell unconscious. His relatives and fellow activists quickly
suspected Verzilov was the victim of poisoning and on Tuesday doctors at the
Berlin hospital where he has been transferred for treatment said they had no
other explanation for his sudden sickness.

"The impression and the findings that we now have, as well as those provided
by colleagues from Moscow, suggest that it was highly plausible that it was
a case of poisoning,” Dr. Kai-Uwe Eckardt of Berlin's Charite hospital told
reporters.

Eckardt said doctors currently have "no evidence whatsoever that there would
be another explanation for his condition.”

The hospital’s chairman, Karl Max Einhaeupl, told reporters that Verzilov
was no longer in life-threatening danger and that his condition was
“improving day by day.”

Verzilov, 30, fell sick following a friend's court hearing in Moscow on
Sept. 11 and was taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was placed in
intensive care. Verzilov's symptoms included disorientation and widened
pupils and Russian doctors began treating him for possible poisoning,
Eckardt said, emptying his stomach and performing a dialysis.

Verzilov, who has Russian and Canadian citizenship, was then moved to
Germany by air ambulance on Saturday, flown there by the Cinema for Peace
Foundation, an NGO that has supported Pussy Riot.

Eckardt said Verzilov was suffering from anticholinergic syndrome, which can
disrupt the nervous system.

He said that laboratory tests were currently being carried out to identify
the exact substance used to poison Verzilov but said it was unlikely that
would be possible given the amount of time that had passed since he was
exposed.

Eckardt ruled out that Verzilov could have taken the drug himself, saying
there was “no evidence that there is a drug problem” and that it would be
highly unusual for someone to take the drug in such a high dose unless the
person was suicidal, which he said they had “no indications of.”

Eckardt said he hoped Verzilov would now make a full recovery and would not
suffer any long-term health consequences.

Verzilov is one of the best-known members of Pussy Riot and is the estranged
husband of Nadya Tolokonnikova, whose arrest in 2012 with two other
activists over their protest in a Moscow cathedral led to the group becoming
world famous. During that period Verzilov, a veteran activist and
provocateur, became a kind of impresario for the group, often handling media
inquiries.

In recent years, he has continued to arrange stunts targeting president
Vladimir Putin's rule even as Tolokonnikova and the group's other leading
member, Maria Alekhina, have increasingly stopped performing together. In
July, Verzilov and two other Pussy Riot members were sentenced to 15 days
jail for a demonstration during the World Cup final, in which they ran onto
the field dressed as police officers to protest police oppression in Russia.

There have been a number of high profile poisoning cases involving opponents
of the Russian government recently, including the poisoning of former spy
Sergey Skripal and his daughter.

Another prominent activist, Vladimir Kara-Murza, from the liberal group Open
Russia, in 2015 and 2017 was poisoned twice with an unknown substance.
Kara-Murza suffered organ failure on both occasions and now walks with a
cane.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/german-doctors-pussy-riot-member-poisoned/story?id=57901880