Russian opposition activists said that attackers threw a bottle containing an unknown substance into a campaign office, resulting in at least three hospitalizations.
The Tuesday attack happened at an office of an opposition group in Novosibirsk, the same office that also reportedly holds the headquarters of Alexei Navalny’s local team. Navalny, a major opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is recovering in Germany after allegedly being poisoned.
The attack in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city, happened Tuesday at about 12:25 p.m. local time. Olga Guseva, a project manager with Navalny’s team, told CNN that two men ran into the office where dozens of people were attending a talk for election observers.
“One was holding the door, the other one, with [screams of profanities], threw a bottle with a yellow liquid with a strong, pungent chemical smell,” Guseva recounted.
Guseva said that the odor was “unbearable,” and some people left the room coughing. Guseva said that three individuals were taken from the office in ambulances and that “volunteers [felt] sick and dizzy.”
Another witness, Artem Yaoumbaev, said he saw the masked person toss a glass bottle into the office that shattered upon impact.
“From the very beginning, I had a headache … weakness, a feeling of nausea. And then, when it became bad, severe dizziness came, and I started vomiting,” Yaoumbaev said. “Apparently, I passed out. I was told that I had convulsions when I was unconscious.”
Police have not yet released information about what the substance thrown into the office might have been. Surveillance footage was released of the incident.
Во время лекции по наблюдению для агитаторов напали на штаб. Один из нападающих разбил бутылку с едкой жидкостью. Штаб эвакуирован, работает полиция. Утверждают, что какая-то Асд-фракция. Двое волонтеров в скорой. Единую Россию – это не спасет. pic.twitter.com/9cFPpvfYWz
— Сергей Бойко (@_sergey_boyko) September 8, 2020
The attack came a day after Navalny emerged from a medically induced coma while being treated in Germany. The 44-year-old Putin critic suddenly collapsed during a flight in Siberia in August. German officials alleged Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet/Russian-produced nerve agent Novichok, a powerful nerve agent that was also believed to have been used in an attempt to assassinate ex-Soviet spy Sergei Skripal in England more than two years ago.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel of New York and Republican ranking member Michael McCaul of Texas sent a letter to President Trump on Tuesday, urging an investigation into Navalny’s poisoning. They said that Russia should face sanctions if it was involved in the attack. The United States previously issued sanctions after Skripal was poisoned.
