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Pussy Riot: ‘Highly Probable’ Activist Was Poisoned, Say German Doctors

Pyotr Verzilov fell ill after a court hearing last Tuesday.

It's “highly probable” that a Pussy Riot activist who fell ill after a court hearing last week was poisoned, according to German doctors. Pyotr Verzilov—one of four members of the anti-Kremlin protest group who invaded the pitch at the World Cup final in Moscow this summer—was taken to a Moscow hospital in a serious condition last Tuesday and was flown to Berlin on Saturday night. He lost his vision and was unable to walk. “It is highly probable that he was poisoned,” a doctor at Charité hospital in Berlin said Tuesday, adding that there was no other explanation so far as to why Verzilov would have the symptoms. They haven't determined what substance was used to poison him. Verzilov, who has dual Russian and Canadian citizenship, had been in intensive care since arriving in Berlin but doctors say his condition is not life-threatening.