The prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is said to have been closely watched by the authorities before he was poisoned. „The extent of the surveillance does not surprise me at all, we were already aware of it,“ wrote his spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch today on the short message service Twitter. „But it’s amazing that they didn’t hesitate to tell everyone about it.“
The background is an article in the Moscow tabloid “Moskovsky Komsomolets”. It describes in detail all the movements of the opposition on his journey through Siberia. Navalny has been in a coma since Thursday and is artificially ventilated. Since yesterday he has been treated in the Berlin Charité.
Navalny’s team announces information
His team believe that he was the victim of a poison attack while traveling through Siberia. Nawalny’s employees want to provide information on their internet channel this evening. „We will tell everything that is currently known about Alexei’s poisoning,“ wrote Jarmysch on Twitter. She will report from Moscow and her colleague Leonid Volkov from Berlin.
Volkov works for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund. He is a close confidante of the 44-year-old and also accompanied his wife Julia to the Charite. The Russian doctors only refer to Navalny as having a metabolic disorder. Volkov underlined: „We will now tell how everything actually was.“
Newspaper received surveillance log
Navalny is one of the sharpest critics of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin. In the article about the surveillance, the newspaper „Moskovsky Komsomolets“ refers to unspecified security circles. It describes where Navalny was at all times, with whom he spoke and where he stayed.
The team is said to have rented several hotel rooms, but Navalny was taken to a „conspiratorial“ apartment. Someone from his team is said to have ordered sushi. The authorities are said to have shadowed him the whole time, the article said.
If there was any poisoning at all, it could probably only have happened at the airport or on the plane, the conclusion was drawn. „All movements and contacts in the city have been meticulously examined.“
