Moscow — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned and hospitalized Thursday morning, his spokeswoman said.
The 44-year-old arch foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.
"The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. Alexei has a toxic poisoning," Yarmysh tweeted.
Omsk is also in Siberia.
Navalny is unconscious and was placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit, according to Yarmysh.
She said there must have been something in tea he drank in the morning. It was the only thing he drank in the morning, she said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at a protest ahead of President Vladimir Putin's inauguration ceremony in Moscow on May 5, 2018.
STRINGER/REUTERS
"Doctors are saying the toxin was absorbed quicker with hot liquid," she said, adding that Navalny's team called police to the hospital.
The politician is in grave condition, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the chief doctor at the hospital. The ICU he's in specializes in toxicology patients, TASS said, according to AFP.
He's suffered attacks in the past. Among them was one last year when he was rushed to a hospital from prison, where he was serving a sentence following an administrative arrest. His team said that was a suspected poisoning. Doctors then said he had a severe allergic attack and discharged him back to prison the following day.
He suffered chemical burns to an eye in 2017 when attackers threw green dye used as a disinfectant at his face outside his office, AFP says.