Russian opposition leader Navalny ‘poisoned’

MOSCOW: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “poisoned” by an unidentified toxic substance and doctors have sent him back to jail despite his condition, his lawyer and personal physician said Monday. The 43-year-old, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, was rushed to hospital on Sunday with swollen eyelids, discharge in the eye and a rash on his upper body, doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva said. “It is indeed poisoning by some unknown chemical substance,” his lawyer Olga Mikhailova told reporters outside Moscow’s hospital No 64, which treated Navalny. Vasilyeva wrote on Facebook that “some toxic agent may be the reason for Alexei Navalny’s ‘illness’”. Navalny has been in jail since last week for calling an unauthorised rally. After his hospitalisation on Sunday doctors diagnosed Navalny with a skin condition, Vasilyeva said.