Assassin Unknown?

Opposition politician Alexei Navalny  Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

"It's essentially an attempt to remove him as a threat. They consider this with a classic KGB mentality: 'no man, no problem'."  "By removing him [Navalny] personally, they aim to kill the brand and end the team. ...[But] it's a grave mistake by the Kremlin to think that without him the movement stops." "Look at Belarus. It is a YouTube revolution. Tikhanovskaya is the Belarusian Navalny."                                                                         Vladimir Milov, former Russian deputy energy minister 

"[Navalny's reply to the question, 'Why do you think  you're not being killed and what happens if you are?' was: 'it's a dangerous place and that's why I'm talking to you -- in the hope you can work on our common cause']. So this was something he already had in mind."                                                                                           "He's the only threat the ruling party is facing."                                                          Sergei Gurlev, professor, Sciences Po, Paris

"He really got under the skin of people who have big country houses and lavish mansions, but I wouldn't say he was such a threat to the regime that it had to bump him off."                                                                                                                     "If there isn't a convincing public investigation the opposition will point the finger at the authorities. If they weren't involved, it shouldn't be hard to get to the bottom of it and find some sort of scapegoat, and that could be absolutely anyone. There are a fair number of crazy people sitting in the woods with grenade launchers."             "But it's definitely not Putin and it's definitely not the government.  At least I hope so. That would really be beyond the pale."                                                     Unidentified go-between with senior Kremlin officials

"We don't know for sure whether it was personally ordered by Putin. But we understand that he created the conditions where this can happen and the people responsible won't be punished or suffer any repercussions."                            Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director, Navalny's foundation

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a stretcher  Alexey Malgavko/Reuters

Once the howls from the international community and their leaders became sufficiently intense, bolstered by person-to-person persuasive arguments by telephone between the two most influential EU heads of state, and a personal intervention by Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed to engage in a pursuit for the identity of whoever it was that was responsible for the attempted murder of Alexei Navalny, the irritating gadfly who was so rudely attempting to unseat Mr. Putin and his party from power.

Sergei Skripal, daughter Yulia, targeted with Novichok, 2018. Getty/Michael Howard

According to a public statement that followed from Russia's parliamentary speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, a separate investigation would be led by him to determine whether the poisoning was "an attempt by foreign powers to harm the health of a Russian citizen with the aims of creating tensions within Russia and making yet more accusations against our country". Progress can be seen in that Mr. Putin and his Kremlin allies no longer deny that Mr. Navalny was poisoned. Regression to the same old is recognized in Mr. Volodin's outrage that an 'outside entity' such as a "foreign power" would dare to harm a Russian citizen, much less purpose to wreak unrest within the country.

And though German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined with French President Emmanuel Macron to offer medical services and asylum to the victim of a poisoning attack, and Ms. Merkel whose Germany is now hosting Mr. Navalny at the Charite hospital in Berlin, has no intention of estranging Russia from Germany, intent on maintaining open diplomatic ties and with the diplomacy firm political ties in the belief that open lines must be required as a requisite for persuasive relations with Russia.

Emergency oxygen respiratory bed Charite Hospital  Michele Tantussi/Getty

Alexei Navalny, 44-year-old passionately committed political activist is so detested by Russia's presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov that he refers to him singularly not by name -- a curse that will not pass his lips -- but as 'the patient', a truly pejorative curse spat out in disgust. But then, Mr. Navalny is not only a political activist, but a socially moral one, outraged by the corruption of Russian oligarchs amassing great fortunes at the expense of the ordinary Russian citizen in a collaborative arrangement between themselves and government.

As a result, he is detested not only by the Kremlin and Russia's president, but by powerful men whose intimate contacts where they count, and whose uncountable wealth is under attack by this painfully annoying upstart. Alexei Navalny's activism and direct appeal to ordinary Russians to expect more from their political leaders - than to build up arms, contest the West, interfere with other nations' civil wars and insurrections, and enrich themselves and their allies at the expense of the general public when they should be governing justly with fair outcomes, lifting the population into security -- has gained him the support of the public.

Litvinenko met with former KGB contacts, London, 2006 Getty Images

In the past five years six violent attacks have taken place against Russian dissidents. The international notoriety that Russia gained when the eyes of the world swivelled to Britain at the attempted murder by poisoning in Britain of former double agent Sergei Skripal with the nerve agent novichok, following on the earlier murder of Alexander Litvinenko with the use of polonium-210, left no doubt that Russian government hardball against those the Kremlin considers traitors is real and it is deadly.

Mr Nemtsov shot on a bridge in view of St Basil's Cathedral & the Kremlin AP

And of course, in 2015 opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was put out of contention as a potential threat to Vladimir Putin's plans to govern uninterrupted for the rest of his life when he was shot four times in the back ensuring he would never again contest Russia's presidential reign in perpetuity by a man who brooks no criticism. In this bold and shocking killing by an unidentified gunman, President Putin took personal control of the investigation to discover who might have been behind the dastardly plot to remove a formidable political opponent of the president. Still under investigation.

State efforts to silence Mr. Navalny grew in lock-step with his popularity, when over the course of the years he was jailed on thirteen occasions for protests directed against Mr. Putin, and finally sentenced to six years in prison on embezzlement charges (!) in 2013; whatever it would take. He was subjected to violent attacks; a chemical substance thrown at him, blinding him in one eye. He also  believes that when he took ill during one of his jail sentences an attempt had been made to poison him.

 Anna Politkovskaya shot dead in Moscow. Getty/Michael Howard

According to the Levada Center, an independent pollster, a June survey found that Mr. Navalny was viewed as Russia's second most "inspirational" leader following directly after the number-one candidate, Vladimir Putin. In Belarus over two weeks of mass protests followed the corrupt re-election of Alexander Lukashenko who has ruled the country for the past 26 years, backed by the Kremlin. There, blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky built a YouTube following modelled on Navalny's modus operandi.

Germany has offered asylum to the combative, but now still-comatose Navalny whom the Kremlin continues to deny having had any intention to harm. For an example of the kind of courage that Navalny possess, one only need look to the example of the man whose campaign against corruption reflected Navalny's own. Sergei Tikhanovsky was arrested in Belarus, leading his wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to run in the election for her husband, becoming the focal point of the protests.

"I can give you 120 percent that he will never do that [accept Berlin's officer of asylum]. He will stay in Russia and continue to do what he does. The biggest gift we could give to those people in the Kremlin is if we got up and ran", stated activist Vladimir Kara-Murza another Navalny colleague who had survived two attempts on his own life.

Alexei Navalny, pictured here at the centre of a 2018 rally, is expected to survive the poisoning but remains unconscious in a serious condition. Anti-Putin protesters in the far east of Russia now chant Navalny's name, demanding justice.  Credit:AP

Life As Usual In Israel

Israeli soldiers stand near artillery units deployed near the Lebanese border northern Israel on August 26, 2020. Photo by David Cohen/Flash90.

"In response, overnight, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] attack helicopters and aircraft struck observation posts belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization in the border area [between Lebanon and Israel]."                                                Israeli military spokesperson 

"Our message to Hezbollah is sharp and clear: We will continue to thwart its attempts to gain achievements."                                                                                    Brig. Gen. Shlomi Binder, commander, IDF Galilee Division

"It is our assessment that the choice of location by Hezbollah [for the sniping attack] was not accidental ... probably in order to [draw] Israeli retaliation towards a United Nations position or near it."                                                                            "I would emphasize that this was a very dangerous and cynical practice to deliberately locate their combat troops close to U.N. positions and then engage against the IDF, violating U.N. Resolution 1701 [which bans the presence of armed Hezbollah cells in south Lebanon] … and probably hoping for there to be U.N. casualties as a result of Israeli retaliation. The IDF is very much aware of the location of U.N. troops, and does [its] utmost not to affect them."                               "Our objective is not to escalate the situation, but to protect our civilians, uphold sovereignty and allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis enjoying [he] last days of summer to vacation in northern Israel."                                                                 Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, Israeli military spokesman 

An IDF labeled view showing the proximity of the Hezbollah terror squad to UN peacekeeping forces and the Israel-Lebanese border. Source: Screenshot.

Palestinians  release balloon-borne explosive to Israel  Fadi Fahd/Flash90

"One device was found next to a playground and a second was found in a tree. In both cases, a police sapper was called. No damage or injuries were caused." Eshkol Regional Council spokesperson

"Following the continued violation of security stability, and following the decision to close the Kerem Shalom Commercial Crossing with the exception of humanitarian equipment, it will be noted that the import of vehicles, which has so far been carried out through the Erez Crossing, was stopped as well starting today."                                                                   Spokesperson, Erez crossing with Gaza

Oh, did Lebanon just several weeks back suffer a horrendous Beirut-dock explosion that killed 200 people, injured thousands and made hundreds of thousands Beirutis homeless, causing thousands of Lebanese to march in the streets demanding their Hezbollah-driven government step down? If so, the magnitude of the catastrophe has not yet penetrated the minds and consciences of the Hezbollah elite who far prefer to provoke Israel by attacking its soldiers across the blue line in Israel in hopes of inciting a lash-back to harm UN representatives keeping the 'peace' to enable an 'incident'.

The Israeli military responded as it must, striking Hezbollah posts with no loss of life, in the knowledge that the incident was a ruse to place UN personnel within the nearby peacekeeping post at risk. According to a Lebanese army announcement Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a local environmental group center. The following day the Israeli military gave the all-clear to Israelis living near the border -- instructed to remain indoors -- that they might now resume normal activities. Israel's north and Lebanon's south are on uneasy terms.

An attempt by Hezbollah operatives the month before to infiltrate Israel failed. Within Israel itself, Palestinians find the opportunity to stab Jews, sometimes causing grave injury, and sometimes causing death as happened last week when an Israeli rabbi was stabbed to death in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva, leaving four children without a father. The attacker, father to five children, will now face Israeli justice, and his family will be left homeless when their house is destroyed.

Incendiary balloons launched from Gaza have caused dozens of fires in Israel in recent days  AFP

Attacks by Palestinians on Jews, though routine enough, and incited by the Palestinian Authority which claims the attackers to be Palestinian heroic 'martyrs', are not the only means of violence committed against Israel. Incendiary devices attached to helium-filled balloons are regularly released by Palestinians over the border from Gaza into Israel, where vast acreages of forest and farmland are burned. Other balloons carrying explosive devices wreak carnage of the type that exploded into a home in an Israeli town last week, its occupants miraculously escaping harm.

Israeli aircraft and tanks last Friday retaliated by striking Hamas facilities in Gaza while Hamas responded by firing a half-dozen rockets into southern Israel. No casualties were reported despite the exchanges, on either side, Israel or Gaza. According to Israel, the military struck underground infrastructure and a military post belonging to Hamas, as well as a Hamas armed training camp. This time, it is Israel's south and Gaza's north where the neighbourly exchanges are taking place.

Israel has responded to the attacks by bombing militant targets  Reuters

These are pressure tactics used by Hamas to 'persuade' Israel to open the blockade of Gaza, to allow Hamas free reign to bring in materials to continue building tunnels, and arms to continue posing its existential threat to Israel. Israel, despite the blockade, opens the Erez crossing daily to ensure that vital supplies enter Gaza. The cement and other building materials that Israel will not permit entry other than in limited amounts, is smuggled into Gaza by Hamas and  used not for civilian infrastructure but for more tunnel-building.

The endless cycle of threats and violence plays its course through the relationship Israel labours under, with its neighbours who place low value on quality of life for ordinary Palestinians and Lebanese and high value on destroying stability for Israelis, with the intention of  ultimately bringing violent destruction to the nation, cleansing the historical heritage Judean landscape of the presence of Jews in a Jewish state, renewed with the intention of defending Jews in their own homeland restored, from a world that has repeatedly proven it has no place for them elsewhere in the diaspora.

What other nation on Earth has its legitimacy and sovereignty challenged continually by its neighbours in never-ending attacks? What other nation must defend its population from ongoing threats of attack leading to death from violent terrorists, the world looking on with detached interest, while segments of that world rise to the defense of the attackers claiming them to have been ill done by, refusing to condemn the violence, and expecting Israel to escape condemnation by restraining its military from imposing the full strength of its defence against indomitable hatred and hostility threatening to annihilate the country?

An Israeli soldier battles a blaze close to the southern kibbutz of Nir Am that was apparently caused by a balloon-borne incendiary device launched from the Gaza Strip, August 23, 2020. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Another COVID Complication -- No Simple Solutions

"The finding does not mean taking vaccines will be useless. Immunity induced by vaccination can be different from those induced by natural infection."                  "The patient got re-infected 4.5 months after the first infection. Therefore, it shows that for this patient, the immunity induced by the first infection is short lasting."    Dr.Kai-Wang To, University of Hong Kong

"Given the number of global infections to date, seeing one case of reinfection is not that surprising even if it is a very rare occurrence."                                                  Jeffrey Barrett, consultant, COVID-19 Genome Project, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Britain

"This case illustrates that re-infection can occur even just after a few months of recovery from the first infection. Our findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may persist in humans, as is the case for other common-cold associated human coronaviruses, even if patients have acquired immunity via natural infection or via vaccination."                                                                                                   "Patients with previous COVID-19 infection should also comply with epidemiological control measures such as universal masking and social distancing,"                                                                                                     Research paper

Medical staff wearing protective clothing take test samples for the Covid-19 coronavirus from a foreign passenger at a virus testing booth outside Incheon international airport, west of Seoul, on April 1, 2020

"What I think is really important is that we put this into context. There's been more than 24 million cases reported to date. And we need to look at something like this on a population level. And so it's very important that we document this -- and that, in countries that can do this, if sequencing can be done, that would be very, very helpful. But we need to not jump to any conclusions."                                       "Even if this is the first documented case of reinfection, it is possible of course because with our.experience with other human coronaviruses, and the MERS coronavirus and the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus, we know that people have an antibody response for some time but it may wane."                                           Maria Van Kerkhove, World Health Organization's technical lead for coronavirus response, head, emerging diseases and zoonoses unit

 

"The report from Hong Kong of a re-infection in a man by COVID-19 that was genetically different from the first infection should not be too surprising. It is, however, important that this is documented."

"Of particular note was that the case was a young and otherwise healthy person and that the second infection was diagnosed 4.5 months after the initial episode." "Commentators have been saying for some time that immunity is unlikely to be permanent and may only last a few months. Given the different intensity of the antibody response in people with mild or severe illness and the subsequent decay in levels, it is likely that those with a mild illness will have a shorter duration of immunity than those with severe illness."                                                                      Dr. Paul Hunter,  professor in medicine, University of East Anglia's Norwich School of Medicine, Britain

 

"Second infection was asymptomatic. While immunity was not enough to block reinfection, it protected the person from disease. Patient had no detectable antibody at the time of reinfection but developed detectable antibody after reinfection. This is encouraging. [Since reinfection can occur, herd immunity by natural infection is unlikely to eliminate the novel coronavirus.]"                          "The only safe and effective way to achieve herd immunity is through vaccination." "Lastly, while this is a good example of how primary infection can prevent disease from subsequent infection, more studies are needed to understand the range of outcomes from reinfection."                                                                                         Akiko Iwasaki. Yale School of Medicine

There have been reports from various countries; Israel, the Netherlands, of reinfections with COVID-19. People who had once contracted the disease then recovered months later being reinfected with an entirely new infection, and a new strain of the disease; meaning that the antibodies their immune system produced after their first infection were perhaps partially or temporarily effective in warding off new infection, but not long-lasting enough to prevent a future reinfection. This finding, should it turn out to be a common occurrence, would blow the effect of the herd immunity concept out of the water.

A 33-year-old man in Hong Kong, recovered from a bout of COVID-19, some four and a half months later was once again infected. His is the first documented case of human reinfection, and researchers at the University of Hong Kong, reporting on this case produced a study, published in the international medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The man had been judged entirely recovered from COVID on his discharge from hospital in April.

He had later gone on a trip, returning on August 15 to Hong Kong from Spain through Britain. He appeared to be healthy but was found to have contracted a different strain of the coronavirus from that he had previously been infected with. For the second infection he remained asymptomatic, not knowing he was infected and theoretically passing the virus on to others with whom he came into contact. 

The virus which causes the disease has led directly to the deaths of over 800,000 people globally. And according to the findings documented in the newly published paper, COVID may continue to spread around the globe, in spite of herd immunity. The hope that the more people within any given population contracted the disease and community antibodies build, the better the opportunity for the greater, uninfected population to be able to avoid contracting SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19.

Dr. To, the lead researcher in the study, cautioned that no such predictions can yet be made with confidence, that results of the vaccine trials would determine just how effective they will turn out to be in preventing the further spread of the virus. Mainland China has reported instances of people having been discharged from hospitals after recovering from COVID-19 infection, later testing positive for the virus. There was no clarity however, whether the virus had been contracted following full recovery as with the patient in Hong Kong or whether these people had virus remaining in their body from the initial infection.

A man walks past a mural in Hong Kong on Sunday. | AFP-JIJI

Disposing of Critics

Medical specialists carry Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a stretcher into an ambulance on their way to an airport before his medical evacuation to Germany [Alexey Malgavko/ Reuters]

"Tests were immediately taken for the presence of toxic substances in the body. Already today we can say that oxybutyrates, barbiturates, strychnine, convulsive or synthetic poisons have not been found. Alcohol and caffeine were found in the urine." 
Omsk regional health ministry

"So clearly, being an outspoken opposition leader or being a corruption fighter or a whistle-blower in Russia is a dangerous business indeed."                               "Navalny was doing a lot of work exposing corruption, including at the highest level … and this is what they do to retaliate against their critics."                                     Ariel Cohen, senior fellow, Atlantic Council

"He survived the flight and he's stable. It's obvious that something terrible happened. He's a healthy, strong man with a good constitution -- the night before the attack he was swimming in a river."                                                       "Obviously this was an attack on his life ... A healthy man suddenly was in life danger and maybe could have died and maybe he can still die."                           Jaka Ibzili, German organization Cinema For Peace   

"It takes a while to rule things out. And particularly if something is highly toxic — it will be there in very low concentrations, and many screening tests would just not pick that substance up."                                                                                             Alastair Hay,  emeritus professor, toxicology expert, school of medicine, University of Leeds

Mr Navalny is on a ventilator after drinking what is thought to have been poisoned tea. Pic: @djpavlin

A standoff between doctors and allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny came to a head on Friday when official clearance was granted for his transfer to a Berlin hospital from the Omsk Emergency Hospital where he was being treated after collapsing and falling into a coma on a routine flight from Siberia to Moscow. It is assumed that he was poisoned, a not-incongruent method frequently used to silence critics of the Kremlin and of Vladimir Putin, and possibly the second time poison was used on Mr. Navalny himself who survived the first attempt and may this one as well.

Others have been less fortunate. Conflicting accounts on Mr. Navalny's condition and whether he might be taken aboard a specially outfitted German medical evacuation flight waiting to receive him at the Omsk airport were eventually concluded. Omsk Emergency Hospital chief physician, Alexander Murakhovsky early on Friday said the patient's state of health mandated he not be moved, but hours later he reversed himself, saying transfer to German care could proceed.

Anti-Kremlins: 'Navalny was poisoned. We know who is guilty. Alexei, live'

Dr.Murakhovsky also stated that no indication presented itself that Mr. Navalny had been a victim of poisoning, despite that he had said earlier it would take two days before laboratory results would be received. Those speaking for Mr. Navalny were under no illusions that he hadn't been a poisoning target, the most recent victim of state-ordered poisoning. His condition had improved from Thursday when he had been stricken, but no details were available from attending doctors.

The human rights activist Jaka Bizilj's Cinema for Peace Foundation was eager to leave Saturday with the patient on a chartered ambulance aircraft, for Berlin. When it arrived in Omsk Friday, three German physicians were aboard who eventually were permitted to examine Mr. Navalny. The German doctors were made unavailable -- forcibly escorted elsewhere by Russian authorities -- for their conclusions to be shared with Yulia Navalnava, Mr. Navalny's wife, nor with his colleagues; all blocked from speaking with them.

As far as Mr. Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh was concerned, Russian doctors were guilty of endangering the stricken man's life by prolonging his Omsk Hospital stay rather than assent to his immediate departure for Berlin, as a reflection of their intentions to hinder an investigation "until the poison in his body can no longer be traced". She charged that "The ban on transporting Navalny is an attempt on his life, which is now being carried out by the doctors and the deceitful authorities who sanctioned it."

Doctors in Omsk hospital said there was no trace of poison in Mr Navalny's body  Sky News

Doctors at his hospital, said Dr.Murakhovsky, were possessed of "five working diagnoses", without divulging any details. The most likely cause of the coma that Mr. Navalny fell into, he later stated is "a metabolic disorder caused by a sharp drop in blood sugar levels during the flight [from Siberia to Moscow, which was aborted when Mr. Navalny fell suddenly ill]." Transportation police, on the other hand, had informed a Navalny associate, Ivan Zhdanov, that they had discovered poison deemed a danger not only to Mr. Navalny but anyone else close to him, meaning access to Navalny not be permitted without the protection of a full haz-mat suit.

The explanation proffered by the Omsk physicians was an industrial chemical substance found on Mr. Navalny's clothing, denying that the chemical poisoned Mr. Navalny. Mr. Navalny's enemies are those of whom he has been ultra critical; his Anti-Corruption Foundation served to expose excesses and corruption carried out by members of Russia's elite, enriched through their Kremlin connections.

"The plane with Alexei has taken off for Berlin. A huge thank you to everyone for your support." "The struggle for Alexei's life and health is just beginning and there will be much more to go through, but at least now the first step has been taken."  Kira Yarmysh

The emergency medical plane transporting Mr Navalny lands at the Tegel airport in Berlin