Aleksei Navalny will survive 'poison attack', but will be 'incapacitated for months' advocate says

A comatose Alexei Navalny is being treated in a German hospital after what his allies say was a poison attack. He was flown from Siberia to Berlin when authorities finally released him, two days after the suspected poisoning.

The prominent journalist and critic of Vladimir Putin "will survive," Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for Peace Foundation, told the German tabloid Bild, but will be "incapacitated for months."

"Navalny will survive poison attack, but be incapacitated for months as a politician," said Bizilj, a cinema producer whose foundation sent the medevac flight to gather a comatose Navalny from Omsk in Russia's far east.

More at Reuters.

Prior to the suspected assassination attempt, Navalny was under covert surveillance, Russian media reported this weekend.

US President Donald Trump, a self-professed "fan" of Putin, has said nothing about the suspected poisoning of the Kremlin's number one critic.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is still in a coma after being poisoned. Trump says nothing, but his silence speaks volumes. It's clear he'll never stand up to Putin - whether he puts bounties on our soldiers' lives or tries to kill a rival. https://t.co/dY5fqUrbq1

- Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) August 23, 2020

Sign in support of Alexei Navalny in Minsk pic.twitter.com/N3MFiGLp3E

- Nataliya Vasilyeva (@Nat_Vasilyeva) August 23, 2020

Though he's best known outside the country as an opposition politician, Alexei Navalny's most enduring legacy may be as the producer of an unorthodox, but highly effective, brand of investigative journalism. https://t.co/c0qlooUJpW

- Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (@OCCRP) August 23, 2020