Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was hospitalized on Thursday, after an unknown man attacked him outside his office in Moscow. The assailant sprayed a green antiseptic into Navalny’s face, drenching his right eye in the noxious chemical.
“What is really unpleasant is that it got in my eye. My right eye is now completely green — both the pupil and the cornea,” Navalny wrote on Twitter.
Translation: “The ambulance came, looked at my dark-green eye, and said that they're taking me to the hospital. They wrapped up [my head] like it'd been seriously injured.”
“It looks pretty funny, but my eye hurts like hell,” he later added, sharing a photograph of his bandaged head and dyed face.
First aid workers soon arrived to examine Navalny’s injuries, and determined that he should be taken to the hospital for further examination and treatment.
The attack occurred as Navalny was leaving his office to attend the Global Event Forum in Moscow.
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of legal affairs for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on Twitter that responding police officers refused to seize video surveillance footage that might help identify the attacker.
Georgy Alburov, another staffer at the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that the attack came as Navalny was taking his seat in a car. In a photograph, the antiseptic is visibly smeared all over the vehicle’s interior. Alburov guesses that the damage will cost hundreds of dollars to repair.
Translation: “Amazing. It's unclear what effect this will have on the eyes, plus the damage to his clothes and to the car. Tens of thousands [of rubles]. And the police don't want to seize the surveillance footage.”
The independent television network Dozhd later reported that Navalny was diagnosed with a chemical burn on his right eye.
