'Highly probable' Pussy Riot activist was poisoned, say German doctors

Pyotr Verzilov being treated in Berlin after falling ill last week after court hearing in Russia

German doctors treating a member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot say his symptoms suggest it is “highly probable” that he was poisoned, but are confident he will make a full recovery.

Pyotr Verzilov, one of four members of Pussy Riot who invaded the pitch dressed in police uniforms during the World Cup final in Moscow to protest against excessive Russian police powers, fell ill following a court hearing last Tuesday. He was rushed to Berlin on Saturday night for treatment.

His early symptoms included loss of vision and being unable to walk or talk.

“It is highly probable that he was poisoned,” a doctor at the Charite hospital in Berlin told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that there was no other explanation as to why Verzilov was in such a condition.

Doctors said they were confident he would return to full health. “Pyotr Verzilov improves day by day and he is no longer at risk,” said the head of the hospital, Karl Max Einhäupl.

Kai-Uwe Eckardt, who heads intensive care medicine at the hospital, said doctors were trying to pinpoint the cause. “We assume he has an intoxication lasting almost a week now. The clinical findings speak for a specific drug group, but the substance is unknown”.

He said toxicology experts have started a wide-ranging probe.

Doctors said Verzilov, who has dual Russian and Canadian citizenship, has been receiving intensive care since arriving in Berlin, but stressed his condition isn’t life threatening. The symptoms indicate a disruption of the part of Verzilov’s nervous system that regulates the inner organs. They declined to comment on how it might have happened, or who could be responsible. After his illness started, other members of the protest group Pussy Riot were quick to say they believed he was poisoned.

Verzilov is a prominent member of the anti-Kremlin scene and has been involved in protest art in Russia for more than a decade. His flight to Berlin was organised by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, which has close connections with Pussy Riot and is based in the German capital.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Verzilov’s ex-wife and a fellow Pussy Riot member, posted a video on Twitter filmed through the door of the plane. She told Bild what happened was “deliberate” and intended to “intimidate or even attempt to murder” her ex-husband.

Writing on Facebook at the weekend, Verzilov’s girlfriend and fellow Pussy Riot member Veronika Nikulshina expressed relief that he had been transferred out of Russia.

“Three times hurrah to everyone who wrote, phoned, visited, cried and sang. We’re in Berlin. All is well,” she said.

Early last year Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician and well-known Kremlin critic suffered suspected poisoning, and was rushed to intensive care following organ failure during a sudden illness. It was his second suspected poisoning, prompting a colleague to consult international doctors who apparently warned that there were many substances that could be discovered only in the first few hours.