Russian opposition politician Navalny in coma in hospital after suspected poisoning

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit after falling ill from suspected poisoning that his allies believe is linked to his political activity, Euronews reports.

His spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said Navalny's personal doctor from Moscow, his wife Yulia Navalnaya and Ivan Zhdanov, chief of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation flew to Omsk, where he is hospitalised. Neither of them, says Yarmysh, is allowed to see Navalny.

His doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva asked for support from the Ministry of Health to gain access to his medical records and transport him to a hospital in Moscow or abroad.

Yarmysh alerted Twitter users on Thursday morning, saying Navalny is in intensive care in a Siberian hospital after apparently being poisoned.

Navalny was on a flight from Siberia to Moscow early on Thursday morning when the plane had to make an emergency landing due to a sudden deterioration of his health, his spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh tweeted. "Alexei has been poisoned, intoxicated," and "is now in intensive care."