you can get bad Tea anywhere on the way to Siberia

Russian ICU ventilators in the news is not the important aspect of a story about Alexei Navalny perhaps being poisoned before a flight. It is that one of Putin’s more public critics reminds us how it still goes to the strange connection to US sanctions and the Trump administration to Russian oligarchs.

BREAKING: Doctors at the Siberian hospital where Alexei Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, lies in a coma after suspected poisoning have allowed his family to transport him to a top German medical facility. https://t.co/vKSTGbpGwh

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 21, 2020

Alexei Navalny's poisoning again demonstrates that for Putin, assassination is policy—inside and outside of Russia. https://t.co/dotetp7mpf

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 20, 2020

Moscow(CNN)

Russian opposition leader and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in a coma after falling ill from suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman said Thursday.

Navalny, 44, started feeling unwell while on a return flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter. The plane later made an urgent landing in Omsk, she added.

Loud groaning can be heard in video footage apparently filmed on the flight taken by Navalny, which was shared on the Baza Telegram channel. More video apparently filmed through the airplane window shows an immobile man being taken by wheeled stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

He only drank black tea in an airport cafe before takeoff, Yarmysh told Russian radio station Echo of Moscow. "We assume that Alexey was poisoned with something mixed into the tea. It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid," Yarmysh tweeted.

Later on Thursday, Yarmysh said that Navalny still had not been diagnosed. "We don't know what exactly caused everything that happened," she said, adding that Navalny's family and doctor had decided to move him to another facility, citing concerns for his safety as well as a lack of necessary equipment for testing.

amp.cnn.com/...

In light of #Navalny being poisoned and near death, I keep thinking about his Deripaska yacht video, talking about Manafort.https://t.co/sBz2oCO7ks pic.twitter.com/zfJETtsozC

— BevMarie (@evenbev) August 20, 2020

The correct response if Putin offers you tea pic.twitter.com/TsPQNtgVLq

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 20, 2020

As if on cue, Russia's top propagandist says it can't have been Russia who poisoned Navalny, because it makes Russia look bad.

"If Navalny really was poisoned, it was the Americans or the English. Just another dirty trick. That's their style. They need Navalny poisoned." pic.twitter.com/dUZeSuNJEx

— max seddon (@maxseddon) August 20, 2020

There has noticeably been no statement yet from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition figure and Putin critic who fell into a coma after allegedly being poisoned

— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) August 21, 2020

The poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Cartoon collection: https://t.co/9QRtPqN1oL

Cartoon by Niels Bo Bojesen.#politicalcartoons #editorialcartoons #Putin #poison #Navalny pic.twitter.com/a5HfdJbtjS

— The Cartoon Movement (@cartoonmovement) August 21, 2020

The Senate/Russia story isn’t getting nearly enough pick up and the Senate GOP isn’t taking a hit for it.

Let's change that.

Thread.https://t.co/AhiOyuswqy

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 21, 2020

THREAD:

I've reviewed Senate Intel's Vol. 5 report on Russian interference & am concerned something important was missed:

On 6/1/16, former Rep Bob McEwen & Rep Robert Aderholt met w/ two Manafort-connected Ukrainian oligarchs cited multiple times in the report. /1@MarkWarner pic.twitter.com/otr4Uecy7G

— Devin Nunes' Mom's Son Devin (@visionsurreal) August 21, 2020

Wow https://t.co/s024svSsFO

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) August 21, 2020

Tadeusz Giczan compares what's happening in Belarus and Donbas. Donbas is the eastern part of Ukraine that Russia invaded in April 2014 (Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine starting in February 2014). Different methods, same effect: #PutinAtWar https://t.co/JxjJo0u7sq

— Michael MacKay (@mhmck) August 21, 2020

So it begins in #Belarus. https://t.co/s9Nf96x83c

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) August 21, 2020

Headline should say “It’s clear he can’t” under federal and state law. https://t.co/4aG0sklPBj

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) August 21, 2020

Saturday, Aug 22, 2020 · 3:51:50 AM +00:00 · annieli

Inside the pod in this photo is Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader, journalist, critic of Putin.

Navalny is in a coma after being poisoned. Medical evacuation was delayed 2 days by officials. He's on the way to Germany now. PHOTO: @Kira_Yarmysh. https://t.co/SRXcNB3LtU

— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) August 22, 2020

Sunday, Aug 23, 2020 · 5:57:50 AM +00:00 · annieli

Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed 81 years ago, pro-Kremlin disinformation about the pact and all its consequences continues to this day. Read more: https://t.co/jouj0qYEUw pic.twitter.com/zFVQ2j6s17

— EUvsDisinfo (@EUvsDisinfo) August 23, 2020