Omsk, Russia The life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is endangered by Russian doctors who refuse to allow him to be removed from the Siberian hospital where he is being treated for suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman accused Friday. A senior doctor at the facility, meanwhile, claimed that “no poison” was found in Navalny’s body, and her preliminary diagnosis was that the opposition leader had simply suffered from a sudden drop in blood sugar.
Hospital officials did not allow President Vladimir Putin to harshly criticize his family or one of his own doctors who came to the facility.
“The chief doctor explained that Navalny is not transportable. Condition is unstable,” his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter. “The ban on Alexei’s transport is a direct threat to his life. It is deadly to stay in Omsk hospital without equipment or a diagnosis.”
Deputy Chief Physician at Omsk State Hospital Anatoly Kalinichenko said in a video clip Friday that “no toxins or traces of its presence in the body have been detected … We do not believe the patient suffered poisoning.”
Alexander Murakhovsky, the hospital’s senior doctor, later said in a video posted online that the preliminary diagnosis was that Navalny had “a sudden drop in blood sugar” caused by an unspecified “metabolic disorder,” according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
IGOR RUSSAK / REUTERS
The Reuters news agency said an air ambulance sent to fly Navalny to Germany for treatment in Omsk had landed. Germany and France had both offered to help.
“The ban on transporting Navalny is an attempt on his life, which is currently being made by doctors and the deceptive authorities who sanctioned it,” Yarmysh said.
Murakhovsky said many legal issues needed to be addressed before Navalny could be relocated from Russia. He said leading doctors from Moscow had fled to help with Navalny’s care.
Navalny, a 44-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner who is among Putin’s most vocal critics, was admitted to Omsk hospital on Thursday after losing consciousness on a flight and making an emergency landing.
Doctors said they were working to save his life after he entered a coma and was placed in intensive care on a ventilator. His supporters believe he was poisoned because of his political activities.
On Thursday, President Trump said the U.S. government was still looking into the reports on Navalny, and that he expected Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to report to him quickly.
“He is a very brave man. He is a very brave politician to stand up for Putin in Russia, and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family,” Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told Fox News on Thursday. . “It’s extraordinary and if the Russians were behind it … it’s something we’ll factor in how we deal with the Russians going forward.”
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