Ill Russian activist moved; spies reported

 In this Sunday, July 15, 2018 file photo, Croatia's Dejan Lovren and a steward grab Pyotr Verzilov, who invaded the pitch during the France and Croatia 2018 World Cup final match in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. Russian news reports say Verzilov, a member of Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot, has been hospitalized in grave condition for what could be a possible poisoning. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
In this Sunday, July 15, 2018 file photo, Croatia's Dejan Lovren and a steward grab Pyotr Verzilov, who invaded the pitch during the France and Croatia 2018 World Cup final match in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. Russian news reports say Verzilov, a member of Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot, has been hospitalized in grave condition for what could be a possible poisoning. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

MOSCOW -- A member of Russia's Pussy Riot protest group says a severely ill fellow activist is being sent to Germany for treatment after his suspected poisoning.

Maria Alekhina told The Associated Press that Pyotr Verzilov was being flown to Berlin on Saturday. She did not give any details.

Independent news site Meduza cited Verzilov's partner, Veronika Nikulshina, as saying a doctor from an unspecified Berlin clinic suggested medical care outside Russia. The doctor is friends with Verzilov's father.

Verzilov has been in intensive care at a Moscow hospital since Tuesday. Alekhina told the AP on Friday that he had regained consciousness.

Verzilov, Nikulshina and two other members of the protest group served 15-day jail sentences for disrupting July's World Cup final with a police protest.

Word of the transfer came hours after Swiss officials said two Russian spies caught in the Netherlands and expelled had been plotting cybersabotage of a Swiss defense laboratory analyzing the nerve agent used to poison a former Russian agent in Britain.

Britain contends that Russia sent two other spies to an English cathedral city in March, carrying a military-grade poison to assassinate a turncoat former colleague, Sergei Skripal, which the Kremlin denies. The two men, publicly identified and charged by the British authorities, appeared on Russian television Thursday to deny involvement in the poisoning that sickened Skripal and three others, and killed one person, insisting that they were sports nutritionists, not spies.

The Dutch authorities declined to comment on any expulsion of Russians or any plans for a cyberattack. The Swiss described the events as having taken place "earlier this year" but declined to be more specific. It was not clear if the Russians were among the diplomatic employees -- many suspected of being intelligence agents -- expelled by Western governments in retaliation for the Skripal attack.

The two Russians, whose names have not been made public, came to the attention of the Swiss authorities during an investigation that began in March into "suspicion of political espionage," said Linda von Burg, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland.

That led to a joint investigation by Swiss, Dutch and British intelligence services, which concluded that the two Russians, working in The Hague, were spies for the Russian government and were preparing "illegal actions against a Swiss critical infrastructure," according to Isabelle Graber, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service.

She did not specify the intended target. But Andreas Bucher, a spokesman for the defense laboratory in the Swiss town of Spiez, confirmed that the laboratory had been the intended target. Bucher said he did not know about the Russians being identified, detained or expelled from the Netherlands.

The Dutch media reports said that when they were intercepted by the Dutch military intelligence service, the two Russians had cyber tools for sabotaging the laboratory.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he would not comment until more information was available. Russia's foreign intelligence service declined to comment.

Information for this article was contributed by Milan Schreuer of The New York Times; and by staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/16/2018

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