Putin critic leaves Russia for treatment after ‘poisoning’

A Russian opposition politician who fell into a coma due to poisoning this month has left the country for treatment abroad after his condition improved, his lawyer said Sunday.
“This morning Vladimir Kara-Murza flew out of the country... to go through rehabilitation treatment after his second acute poisoning,” lawyer Vadim Prokhorov wrote on his Facebook page. “The diagnosis in his hospital discharge report is still the same: ‘Toxic influence of an unknown substance,’” he added.
Kara-Murza, 35, previously experienced sharp deterioration of health due to poisoning two years ago, which included kidney failure and nearly killed him.
Tests in laboratories abroad found high levels of heavy metals in his blood, but the Russian Investigative Committee denied his request to probe whether he was a target of intentional poisoning.
His family said that the latest collapse, which saw him put on a ventilator and renal dialysis in a Russian hospital, could be a result of the 2015 incident.
Kara-Murza was an ally of the late opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead close to the Kremlin in February 2015.
He currently works with the Open Russia foundation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who served 10 years in jail after openly opposing President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Arab News