Kremlin critic OK’D for transfer to Berlin hospital

Moscow accused of poisoning opposition leader

MOSCOW • Gravely ill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was cleared Friday for transfer to a hospital in Berlin, ending a standoff between doctors and Navalny’s allies who accuse Russian officials of attempting to cover up a suspected poisoning of the country’s most prominent opposition leader.

The decision to allow Navalny to leave a Siberian hospital followed conflicting accounts on his condition and whether the comatose Navalny could be taken aboard a German plane waiting at the Omsk airport.

Alexander Murakhovsky, chief physician at the Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1, said Navalny could be transferred to German care. Earlier in the day, he said the 44-year-old Navalny was not well enough to be moved.

Murakhovsky added that there was no indication Navalny was poisoned, though he earlier said it would take two days for test results.

The confusion added to the many questions since Navalny fell into a coma Thursday after he became suddenly ill on a flight en route to Moscow from Siberia. His spokeswoman and others quickly claimed that Navalny was the latest victim of a poisoning ordered by the state, a method used before in attacks linked to Russian agents.

Doctors treating Navalny said his condition has improved, but gave few other details.

Navalny is expected to leave Saturday on a German ambulance aircraft, dispatched by Berlin-based human rights activist Jaka Bizilj’s Cinema for Peace Foundation. The plane arrived in Omsk on Friday, along with three German physicians who were later allowed to examine Navalny.

But Navalny’s associates wrote on Twitter that the doctors were spirited away by unidentified authorities before they could share their conclusions with Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya. She said in a video she was blocked from trying to speak with the Germans at the hospital.

Navalny’s spokeswoman,

Kira Yarmysh, accused the Russian physicians of endangering Navalny’s life, suggesting on Twitter that they wanted to hinder an investigation by stalling “until the poison in his body can no longer be traced.”

“The ban on transporting Navalny is an attempt on his life, which is now being carried out by the doctors and the deceitful authorities who sanctioned it,” she said.

Less than four hours later, the Omsk hospital gave the clearance for Navalny to be moved.

Navalny’s plight has become a rallying point for Russian opposition groups and others who charge that President Vladimir Putin’s regime was responsible for the alleged toxic attack.

Navalny’s wife personally appealed to Putin in a letter to allow Navalny to be transported to Germany.

Murakhovsky said Friday morning that doctors have “five working diagnoses” but he could not offer details. He later said that the most likely cause for Navalny’s coma is “a metabolic disorder, caused by a sharp drop in blood sugar levels during the flight.”

Meanwhile, Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny associate, said Friday that transportation police told him they discovered poison they deemed dangerous, not only for Navalny but for those around him — so much so that access to Navalny will not be permitted without a full haz-mat suit.

The Omsk physicians later said that the transportation police were referring to an industrial chemical substance that was not found in Navalny’s blood, but on his clothes. They added that it did not poison Navalny. Multiple calls to the transportation police department were not answered.

Russian state news agency Tass, citing an anonymous law enforcement source, reported that a criminal investigation has not been opened because there is no evidence yet that points to intentional poisoning. Photos posted to social media by Navalny’s aides have shown a heavy police presence at the hospital.

Navalny, who once described Putin’s ruling party as one “of crooks and thieves,” has no shortage of powerful enemies in Russia. In addition to his criticism of the government, Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation exposed excesses and alleged corruption by members of Russia’s elite who are enriched through Kremlin connections.

His possible poisoning is reminiscent of other high-profile toxic attacks against outspoken Russians.

In 2015, opposition activist Vladimir Kara-murza’s wife urged that he be evacuated to a hospital in Europe or Israel after Kara-murza suffered kidney failure from a suspected poisoning in Moscow. He eventually recuperated in the United States.

Pyotr Verzilov, a member of Russian protest group Pussy Riot, ended up in a Moscow intensive care unit after a suspected poisoning in 2018 but was then flown to Berlin for treatment.

THE BAN ON TRANSPORTING NAVALNY IS AN ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE.