Medical tests on Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny have found no trace of poison, Russian doctors said Friday. Navalny remains in a serious condition in a hospital in Siberia, after his supporters said he was poisoned.
“Poisoning as a diagnosis remains on the back burner, but we do not believe the patient suffers from poisoning,” Deputy Chief Physician Anatoly Kalinichenko told Omsk Hospital on reporters on Friday.
Kalinichenko added that Navalny’s diagnosis was determined and passed on to his family members, but the doctor refused to disclose it to journalists, citing patient confidentiality laws.
Navalny Spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh disputed this in a tweet and said his family was not told his diagnosis.
The 44-year-old Navalny fell ill on Thursday on a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk and was taken to a hospital after the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk.
A leading member of Russia’s opposition, Navalny campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but was prevented from running. He is often arrested by law enforcement and was attacked in 2017 by several men who threw antiseptics in his face, causing him to damage his eye.
Last year, Navalny was taken from the prison to the hospital with what his team said was suspected of poisoning. Doctors said he had a severe allergic attack and discharged him the next day.
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Late Thursday, the Berlin-based Cinema for Peace Foundation, a German organization that promotes humanitarian issues, said it would send an air ambulance to collect Navalny. The activist group said the hospital in Berlin was ready to take him and treat him. But his doctors refused his evacuation with medical concerns.
Allies of the stabbed Navalny accused the Kremlin of Friday’s evacuation to Germany, saying the decision put his life in mortal danger because the Siberian hospital treating him was not provided for.
“The ban on transporting Navalny is an attempt on his life that is now being carried out directly by doctors and the deceptive authorities who have authorized it,” Yarmysh wrote on Twitter.
“This decision was obviously not made by them, but by the Kremlin,” she added.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that medical authorities would consider any application to move him to a European clinic and were open about his medical condition.
Alexander Murakhovsky, the hospital’s chief physician, told reporters that top doctors had flown in from Moscow to treat Navalny, adding that doctors in Moscow were no less than their European counterparts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday separately that an investigation would be launched if it turned out that Navalny was indeed poisoned, according to state-run news agency TASS.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urges Russia to “clarify” the circumstances of Navalny’s illness, quickly and transparently. She spoke on Thursday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who added that France was ready to provide Navalny with all necessary assistance, including asylum, and would follow the investigations closely.
White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien also said Thursday that the suspected poisoning was highly contagious and could affect U.S.-Russia relations.
“He is a very courageous politician to stand up for Putin in Russia, and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family,” O’Brien said in an interview with Fox News.
“It’s extraordinary and if the Russians were behind it … it’s something we’ll be involved in how we deal with the Russians going forward,” he added.
A small group of Supporters of Navalny began to collect outside the hospital on Friday and demanded his medical evacuation.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Matthew Bodner and Carlo Angerer contributed.
