A Russian opposition politician and well-known Kremlin critic is in intensive care following organ failure in a sudden illness, two years after suffering a suspected poisoning, supporters said.



Vladimir Kara-Murza was on a ventilator and undergoing renal dialysis and other intensive care procedures, lawyer Vadim Prokhorov wrote on Facebook late on Thursday. Kara-Murza was in a critical state, he said.

The 35-year-old was an ally of the late opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead close to the Kremlin in 2015. Until last year he was deputy chair of the Parnas liberal party led by former prime minister turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov.

He now works as the federal coordinator for the Open Russia foundation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who served a decade in jail after openly opposing the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Kara-Murza was taken to hospital in 2015 and diagnosed with acute kidney failure in connection with poisoning and tests found high levels of heavy metals in his blood.

He asked Russia’s investigative committee to probe whether he had suffered intentional poisoning but no criminal case was opened.

“The symptoms are apparently similar to those that were then,” Prokhorov told Interfax news agency on Thursday. The reasons for the activist’s sudden illness were not clear to doctors, he added.

Asked by daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets if poisoning was suspected, Kara-Murza’s father said from the hospital that the doctors did not think so.

“It’s just that the poisoning two years ago didn’t pass without a trace. My son’s health is weakened,” said Kara-Murza’s father, who is also called Vladimir.

Kara-Murza fell ill on Thursday morning and was taken to hospital immediately, his wife, Yevgeniya, was quoted as saying on Open Russia’s website.

For Open Russia, Kara-Murza has carried out projects including backing a group of young opposition politicians to stand in last year’s parliamentary elections.

Khodorkovsky wrote on Twitter that Kara-Murza was “in the hands of a good doctor” adding: “Let him work!”

In 2016 Chechen strongman and Kremlin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov prompted outrage by posting a video on Instagram of Kara-Murza and Kasyanov in the cross hairs of a sniper scope.