'High plausibility' Pussy Riot activist was poisoned in Russia, say German doctors

Anti-Kremlin activist ran onto pitch during World Cup final

Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the feminist protest group Pussy Riot, in a court in Moscow in July (AP)

German doctors treating a member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot said claims he was poisoned are “highly plausible” based on his symptoms.

Pyotr Verzilov has been receiving intensive care since arriving in Berlin from Moscow on Saturday, but his condition is not life threatening, Dr Kai-Uwe Eckardt of Berlin’s Charite hospital said.

Dr Eckardt said his current symptoms and information received from relatives and the Moscow hospital he was admitted to last week “indeed make it highly plausible that a poisoning took place.”

By contrast, he said, Charite doctors have found “no evidence whatsoever that there would be another explanation for his condition.”

But Dr Eckardt said doctors cannot say how Mr Verzilov might have been poisoned or who was responsible.

Dr Eckardt said Mr Verzilov fell ill on 11 September after attending a friend's court hearing in Moscow and was admitting to a hospital in the capital that evening with symptoms including disorientation and widened pupils.

Russian doctors suspected poisoning and treated him accordingly, emptying his stomach and performing a dialysis, he added.

Dr Eckardt said Mr Verzilov was treated well in Moscow before being flown to Germany by private medevac.

He said the symptoms indicate Mr Verzilov is suffering from an anticholinergic syndrome that can result from the disruption of the nervous system regulating the inner organs.

The rapid onset of symptoms – including widely dilated pupils, high blood pressure and dry mucous membranes – was strongly indicative of a poison, Dr Eckardt said.

While doctors in Berlin have not yet determined what was responsible for the poisoning, they said it could have resulted from various substances including high doses of some pharmaceuticals and plants that contain particular toxins.

But six days after the substance is likely to have been ingested, the chances of identifying it are not high, the doctor said.

Mr Verzilov is publisher of Mediazona, an online news outlet focusing on human rights violations inside Russia’s penal system.

He ran on to the pitch during the football World Cup final in Moscow in July along with three women affiliated with Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot came to prominence in 2012 when its members were imprisoned for staging a protest against the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow.