Doctors relent as ‘poison victim’ Navalny allowed to fly to Germany
RUSSIAN doctors yesterday agreed to allow Alexei Navalny to travel to Germany for treatment for his apparent poisoning, after the opposition leader’s wife accused them of “playing for time” to hinder an investigation.
Mr Navalny, Russia’s most outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, was sent to hospital on Thursday and remained unconscious after suddenly falling ill during a flight to Moscow from Siberia.
His wife Yulia appealed to Mr Putin to allow him to travel after doctors refused her request for most of the day, saying his condition was unstable, before reversing their decision.
Several of Mr Navalny’s aides said the doctors deliberately delayed so that foreign medics would not be unable to discover any toxins in his system, and were taking instruction from Russian officials.
Kira Yarmysh, a spokesman, called the delay “an attempt on his life”.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, have expressed concern over the apparent poisoning, while Joe Biden, the US Democratic presidential candidate, called it “unacceptable”.
Ms Yarmysh said a team of German doctors were allowed to see Mr Navalny in the Russian hospital yesterday afternoon, but were barred from talking with his family.
Supporters had been in contact with a German NGO that arranged for his transfer.
The hospital, in the Siberian city of Omsk where the plane was forced to make an emergency landing after Mr Navalny began crying out in pain, has a heavy police presence. Georgy Alburov, who works at the opposition leader’s anti-corruption organisation, said: “It feels like we are organising a jailbreak for Navalny, not trying to move him from hospital to hospital.”
Earlier in the day, Ivan Zhdanov, head of the anti-corruption organisation, said officials had found a substance in Mr Navalny’s system that was dangerous “not only to Alexei, but also for those around him, and that everyone should be in protective suits”.
But doctors later appeared to backtrack, telling journalists no evidence had been found to suggest a poisoning.
Alexander Murakhovsky, the hospital head, said Mr Navalny had been diagnosed with a likely metabolic disease caused by low blood sugar, which may have caused his collapse on a flight.
Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer and key ally of Mr Navalny who has worked with him for 10 years, told The Daily Telegraph her colleague was “strong as an ox” and had never suffered from the condition the doctors described.
Officials at the hospital were “literally running away” from Mr Navalny’s team in order to avoid giving them any information, she said.
Some protesters have held picket signs in Moscow and other Russian cities in support of Mr Navalny.