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Sergei Maximischin, the deputy chief physician of the clinic in Omsk, Siberia, died “suddenly” at the age of 55. The hospital administration announced this “with regret” in an official statement, reports the US broadcaster CNN. No information was provided on the cause of death.
Alexei Navalny was treated in hospital last summer immediately after being poisoned. The Kremlin critic collapsed on a flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow in late August. At first he was treated at the Omsk hospital after the plane crashed. Two days later, while he was still in a coma, he was taken to the Charité University Hospital in Berlin for treatment.
Leonid Volkov, a close confidant of Navalny, confirmed in the CNN report that Maximischin headed the department that dealt with the Kremlin critic.
Alexander Murachowski, the clinic’s chief physician, was promoted last fall. He was promoted to head of the regional health ministry. Murachowski had ruled out that Navalny was poisoned and refused to leave for Germany.
Navalny in court again
Navalny was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17, immediately after his return from Germany. On Tuesday, the Russian opposition leader was sentenced to several years in a prison camp in a court case criticized in Western countries for allegedly violating conditions of parole in previous criminal proceedings.
On Friday, Navalny will be tried again for defamation of a WWII veteran. The Russian judiciary accuses the 44-year-old man of “false” and “insulting” statements about a World War II veteran. This had been expressed in a video for the constitutional referendum of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
Navalny had posted the video on Twitter and described the veteran and other actors as “an embarrassment to the country”, “people without conscience” and “traitors”. If convicted, he faces a fine of up to five million rubles (56,000 euros) and up to five years in prison.
