Credit: Anton Novoderezhkin
Pussy Riot’s Peter Verzilov is in critical condition at Bakhrushin City Clinical Hospital in Moscow. Receiving treatment in the toxicology wing, Verzilov was admitted to the hospital late September 11. His partner Veronika Nikulshina, explained to Meduza that he’s started losing his sight, speech, and mobility. According to friends, the hospital would not allow his mother to see him the evening of September 12. They also would not disclose his condition or diagnosis “[At the hospital] they said they don’t have the right to disclose any information… They sent her away and were rude. They said they can’t admit her. They kept pointing at this sheet of paper, saying that they can’t disclose [any information] until the patient signs a release himself, but he’s unconscious,” a friend of Verzilov told Meduza.
According to Nikulshina, Verzilov began not feeling well after a court hearing that day. He rested for 2 hours and when Nikulshina returned he, “woke up and said he was starting to lose his sight. Between eight and ten, his condition got exponentially worse. First it was his vision, then his ability to speak, and then his ability to walk,” Nikulshina explains to Meduza, “When the paramedics arrived, he answered all their questions, saying, ‘No, I didn’t eat anything. No, I didn’t take anything.’ He was getting worse even faster, and then he started convulsing. On the way [to the hospital], in the ambulance, he was already babbling. […] He fell into such a half-asleep, half-unconscious state that he stopped responding to me and didn’t even recognize me anymore,”
Nikulshina says that the doctor’s initial analysis said that “didn’t turn up anything bad,” Around 1am staff moved Verzilov to the toxicology wing of the hospital. According to Nikushina, the hospital refused to give her a “poisoning” diagnosis explaining that her status as his common-law wife did not entitle her to any rights.
Verzilov rose to prominence in the late 2000s with “Viona” the artist-activist group hosting demonstrations with then wife Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. In 2012, Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich made headlines when their band Pussy Riot were tried and convicted of “premeditated hooliganism performed by an organized group of people motivated by religious hatred or hostility.” Verzilov presented himself as Pussy Riot’s “producer”. In 2014, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina established the news website Mediazona, which publishes bold reports on the criminal justice system of Russia, where Verzilov is the publisher.
