Russian opposition figure Navalny in coma after poisoning

MOSCOW — Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning during a flight, his spokesperson said Thursday morning.

The 44-year-old foe of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.

She said the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, Siberia, and that Navalny was suffering from “toxic poisoning.”

“He is in a coma in grave condition,” she said on Twitter.

She also told the Echo Moskvy radio station that Navalny was sweating and asked her to talk to him so that he could “focus on a sound of a voice.” He then went to the bathroom and lost consciousness.

Yarmysh said the politician must have consumed something from tea he drank earlier in the morning.

“Doctors are saying the toxin was absorbed quicker with hot liquid,” she tweeted, adding that Navalny’s team called police to the hospital.