Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny 'under constant surveillance' before suspected poisoning
Russian security agents were tracking every move of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the days before he fell suddenly ill and claim they did not see any attempt to poison him, according to local media.
Mr Navalny, Russia’s most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was transferred to a German hospital on Saturday and remains unconscious after what supporters say was an attempt on his life in Siberia.
Doctors who treated him in a Siberian hospital before he was allowed to travel abroad have rejected claims of poisoning, saying he was suffering from a “metabolic disorder”.
Sources in the security services told popular Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that plain-clothes officers had followed Mr Navalny and his team in unmarked cars throughout his travels in Siberia, where he was meeting supporters ahead of regional elections next month.
The newspaper published details of Mr Navalny’s travel plans and accommodation arrangements. Agents said they had traced transactions made by his team to work out what food and drink they might have bought.
The sources said they had seen no suspicious activity and suggested that if he were poisoned, it must have been on the plane as he was flying back to Moscow, or at the airport shortly before.
Mr Navalny has long said his moves are tracked by the security service.
“I am not at all surprised by the level of surveillance, we knew about that perfectly well before. But it is astounding (the security service) has no reservations about discussing it so openly,” Mr Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
Mr Navalny began crying out in pain on Thursday on a Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk, and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk.
His spokeswoman said she believed he had been poisoned with a cup of tea in the Tomsk airport.
He was initially treated by Russian doctors, who denied his family’s requests that he be allowed to travel to Germany for treatment, before relenting.
Doctors at the Charité University Medical Centre in Berlin have taken tests to establish the cause of his illness.
The Omsk Ministry of Health put out a statement on Saturday saying no toxins were found in Mr Navalny's system, besides alcohol and caffeine.
Mr Navalny's allies have said they feared authorities in Russia might try to cover up clues as to how he fell ill.
The Russian government denies any involvement.
