Verzilov of Pussy Riot released from Berlin Hospital, blames Kremlin for poisoning: NPR

Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the Russian protest band Pussy Riot, who fell seriously ill in Moscow two weeks ago, said he was poisoned by agents working for the Kremlin.

Verzilov, in an interview granted to the BBC after being released Wednesday from a Berlin hospital, accused the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU: "The poisoning has been so professional that No other conclusion is possible ".

Verzilov, a virulent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, showed symptoms of poisoning in a courtroom in Moscow on September 11 while he was attending an audition for a friend. Verzilov suffered from vision and speech problems and was unable to walk.

Last week he was sent to Germany for treatment.

At the time, Verzilov's associate had insisted that he had been poisoned and that doctors at the Berlin Charity Hospital felt that "the poisoning was highly plausible ".

However, the doctors said, "We can not say anything about how that toxin got into the body, it's not up to us to answer that question."

Pussy Riot is known for a series of bold public protests against Putin that allowed many of his members to end up in Russian prisons. In July, Verzilov and three other members of the group rushed to the field dressed in police during a World Cup football final and spent 15 days in jail for disrupting the match.

Verzilov told the BBC that his poisoning was "just the price to pay if you want Russia to change".

The Russian GRU is also accused of attacking Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter, Yulia, who were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, southern England, in March. Although the Skripals survived the attack of a nerve agent known as Novichok during the Cold War, two other people living in the Salsibury area were accidentally exposed to the same substance a few weeks later. later. One of them died as a result.