Alexei Navalny’s press secretary has urged Russian authorities not to be interested as supporters of the stabbed opposition leader are ready to flee the country to be treated for suspected poisoning.
A plane left Nuremberg with a medical team in the early hours of Friday and would, according to German media, have to head to Omsk before returning to Berlin with Navalny, where the Charité hospital was ready to treat him.
Jaka Bizilj, founder of the German NGO Cinema for Peace Foundation, told newspaper Bild: “The plane is in the air, we have all the necessary paperwork and hope that Alexei is ready for transport tomorrow morning so we can fly to Berlin. “
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s press secretary, said earlier fears of hospital officials could hamper the process of taking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leading critic abroad.
In a video statement released on Thursday night, she said: ‘We ask the management of the hospital where Alexei is now lying so as not to hinder us in obtaining all the documents necessary for his transfer
Navalny flew from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow on Thursday when he suddenly fell ill and lost consciousness, prompting the captain to make an emergency landing in Omsk. Mobile video recorded on the plane shows medical personnel on board as Navalny screamed.
Navalny, 44, was in a coma and on a ventilator in intensive care in Omsk, Yarmysh said on Thursday. She advised against relying on other sources of information on Navalny’s health.
Officials at hospitals in Omsk have provided conflicting information about his condition and have not allowed his family or supporters to see him. Anatoly Kalinichenko, the hospital’s deputy chief physician, confirmed that Navalny was conscious and on a ventilator, but called his condition “stable.” Doctors “are currently engaged in the process of saving his life,” he said on Thursday afternoon.
Hospital staff had also refused to show them the results of tests that would indicate a poisoning, she said. Investigators who said they wanted to check on drugs or other potential toxins had also seized his belongings, she said.
Yarmysh believes that a cup of tea that Navalny drank in an airport cafe contained a toxin, and was the only thing he had ingested that morning. “I’m sure this was deliberate poisoning,” she said, linking it to upcoming elections in the Siberian regions she attended.
If confirmed as a poison attack, it would be the latest in a series of high-profile attacks, often with poison, against opposition figures and Russian dissidents, including the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the 2015 shooting death of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov covered.
The suspected poisoning has attracted worldwide attention. White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said the news was “extraordinary” and could affect US-Russia relations.
“He is a very brave man. “He is a very brave politician to put Putin up in Russia, and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family,” O’Brien told Fox News. “If the Russians were behind this … it’s something we’ll factor in how we move forward with the Russians.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined French President Emmanuel Macron in expressing concern over Navalny’s condition, saying he could receive treatment in Germany or France.
“I hope he can recover and of course whether in France or in Germany he can get all the help and medical support from us,” Merkel said at a joint news conference with Macron.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov wished Navalny a “speedy recovery”, adding that the Kremlin would help him move abroad if necessary. Peskov said claims of poisoning were “mere assumptions” until tests proved otherwise.
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