Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, 44, was in a coma in a Siberian hospital on August 20 after drinking a cup of tea that his spokeswoman said she believed was laced with poison. According to his team he is still in intenstive care ward now.

Navalny was in intensive care and on an artificial lung ventilator, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media. “We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into the tea. It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid. Alexey is now unconscious” Yarmysh wrote on her Twitter micro blog.

A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, Navalny started feeling ill when returning to Moscow from Tomsk in Siberia by plane on August 19 morning, Yarmysh said.

“This morning Navalny was returning to Moscow from Tomsk. During the flight, he felt bad. The plane urgently landed in Omsk. Alexey has toxic poisoning. Now we are going to the hospital by ambulance”

“Judging by the Kremlin garbage dumps [slang for state media], it took them 5 hours to come up with a common breakthrough version: Navalny drank something or ate something himself. This, of course, is complete nonsense. Alexei’s condition has not changed yet. Did not regain consciousness, the diagnosis is not reported” Yarmysh tweeted.