Pussy Riot activist ‘may have taken overdose of medication’

Thursday 13 September 2018 at 3:24pm

Pyotr Verzilov is being treated in hospital (Pavel Golovkin/AP) Credit: AP/Press Association Images

A member of Russia protest group Pussy Riot may have been poisoned by an overdose of medication, it has been reported.

Independent news website Meduza said that Pyotr Verzilov’s doctors told his relatives that he either overdosed on medicine or was given too much medicine.

Fellow Pussy Riot member Veronika Nikulshina told the Associated Press that the report was accurate but would not comment further.

Friends insisted that Mr Verzilov had not been taking medication or using drugs. He has been in hospital in Moscow since Tuesday.

Mr Verzilov and other activists served 15-day jail sentences for disrupting July’s World Cup final to protest against excessive Russian police powers.

Speaking to the AP last week, Mr Verzilov said: “Public protest in Russia is the only way to actually change anything.”