What the F***, Russia?!

 It's probably unsurprising that the most recent news coming out of Russia is that a dissident of Putin's government has been poisoned. It seems to be the go-to method of silencing anyone who doesn't tow Putin's party line. Or doesn't tow the Kremlin's party line. 

Alexy Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who wants to 'nullify United Russia' and vote Putin out of office, was allegedly poisoned while waiting for his flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk, where he had been campaigning. While waiting for his flight back to Moscow, Navalny and his team sat in the airport and had tea.  Not too long after takeoff, Navalny went into the washroom on the plane and was unable to get out. There is video evidence in which you can hear Navalny moaning and screaming in pain. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk. 

Medical personnel took Navalny off the plane and by the time he arrived at the hospital, he was in a coma. Plain-clothes and uniformed police officers descended on the hospital where conflicting reports from doctors and policemen reported that a dangerous chemical was found in Navalny's blood and then that there was no such chemical found in his blood. 

Navalny's wife and his press secretary demanded that he get transferred to a hospital abroad. It seems that it took the interference of Western leaders before Navalny was transferred to a hospital in Germany.

Navalny's poisoning is only the latest in a long line of poisonings thought to be the work of the Kremlin to silence dissidents and political rivals. 

Two years ago, the founder of the Russian media outlet 'Mediazona', and activist, Petr Verzilov says he was poisoned.  He had been in a courtroom all day while his girlfriend was being tried for wearing a police officer's uniform and running onto a soccer pitch. Verzilov says that these poisonings are done in places that are easily controlled.

When they got home, Verzilov took a nap and when he woke up he fell ill.  He was unable to move properly, could not see properly, and eventually lapsed into delirium in which he could no longer recognize his girlfriend. 

In the hospital, relatives were barred from seeing Verzilov, and police and other security personnel descended on the hospital.  By the time he was released from the hospital for treatment in Germany, there was no sign of any toxin in his blood. 

Another opposition politician states that there were attempts to poison him on at least two occasions.  

Vladimir Kara-Murza, currently the vice-chairman of an NGO called "Open Russia" which promotes democracy and civil society in Russia, says the first time was in 2015 after Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed.  Both Nemtsov and Kara-Murza backed a bill that would impose sanctions on Putin's inner circle with regard to human rights violations. Just as with the previous cases, doctors did not find any toxin in Kara-Murza's blood.

The second attempt was in 2017 where Kara-Murza suffered the same symptoms as the 2015 incident including multiple organ failure.

In 2004, journalist Anna  Politkovskaya was poisoned on her way to Beslan in North Ossetia, where a gunman had taken teachers and students hostage in a school.  Politkovskaya lapsed into a coma from which she did recover.  Two years later, she was shot and killed.

There are other similar cases, including a former double agent found with his daughter, unconscious on a park bench in the UK; the poisoning of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, though that was done with polonium; and also Yuri Shchekochikhin, a journalist who was allegedly poisoned with a radioactive substance. 

For the most part, it would seem that these poisonings are meant more to scare the victims, not necessarily kill them.  

It's to send a message to stop what they are doing. Don't be a dissident, don't speak out against Putin, don't support bills that impose sanctions on Putin's inner circle. Keep your head down, and don't cause problems. 

What the F****, Russia! Stop poisoning people just because they disagree with you! It's the 21st century and communism is soooo 1984.

(with sources from Al Jazeera)