It is “highly plausible” that a member of the Russian anti-Putin feminist punk band Pussy Riot was poisoned, doctors confirmed on Tuesday, after Pyotr Verzilov mysteriously fell ill.
Addressing a press conference Tuesday, Dr. Kai-Uwe Eckardt of the Berlin Charite Hospital argued that an external substance had damaged Pyotr Verzilov’s nervous system.
“The information we currently have … shows a high plausibility that poisoning has taken place here,” Eckardt said. “To turn it around, so far we have no indication that there might be another explanation for his state.”
Pussy Riot founding member and Verzilov’s wife Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said that her husband was likely the victim of an “assassination attempt,” claiming that Russian intelligence agencies had long been “trying to find a way to get to Pyotr.”
“Nobody who has taken part in political activity in Russia can really be safe,” she said.
Verzilov fell ill last Tuesday after attending a friend’s court hearing in Moscow. He was later admitted to a Russian hospital after being dizzy, with examinations showing widened pupils before he was treated for the effects of poisoning.
Eckardt added that his patient’s symptoms indicated that he is suffering from an anticholinergic syndrome that is a result of a disruption of the nervous system that regulates the body’s organs. It is currently unclear what substance caused this and in what quantity. However, Eckardt maintained that there are no signs of permanent damage and expected the patient to make a full recovery.
Some have theorized that the alleged attack may have been a response to Verzilov’s demonstration at the 2018 World Cup Final in July, where he and other Pussy Riot members stormed the pitch dressed as police officers. Verzilov and the other streakers were jailed for 15 days and banned from sporting events for three years.
In recent years, Pussy Riot has participated in several anti-Putin demonstrations, the most prominent of which involved performing a protest song called “Punk Prayer” at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. The incident saw three members of the group, Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, all sentenced to two years in jail for “hooliganism.”
The incident is the latest case to raise suspicion of a Kremlin-link plot to harm or murder prominent anti-Putin dissidents. Last week, authorities in the United Kingdom charged two Russian men on charges of poisoning Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia using a novichok substance in the town of Salisbury. The suspects are in Russia and cannot be extradited. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incident.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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