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The allegedly poisoned leader of the Russian opposition is still in the Berlin Charité. Symptoms are improving, according to his spokesman.
The paramedics return to the ambulance the special stretcher with which they admitted Navalny to the Charité. (August 22, 2020)
Photo: Kay Nietfeld (Keystone)
According to the Berlin Charité, the health of the allegedly poisoned Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny remains serious.
But there is no serious danger to life, the university clinic said Friday. The symptoms are decreasing. However, the patient is still in an intensive care unit in an artificial coma and is mechanically ventilated.
“His state of health remains serious, without any acute danger to his life,” says the statement from the clinic. As before, the possible long-term consequences of severe poisoning for the patient are not foreseeable.
Nawalny spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch also reported health problems on Friday. “The symptoms of poisoning are minor,” he wrote on the short message service Twitter. “There is no serious threat to her life now.” However, doctors have yet to make any further prognoses.
The opposition activist, who suddenly fell into a coma on a flight in his home country on August 20 and was examined for the first time in Omsk, treated at the Charité since last Saturday at the insistence of his family. Based on an evaluation of the clinical findings, German doctors have assumed since earlier this week that Navalny was poisoned. Poisons from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors had been detected. The specific substance is not yet known.
Psychological consequences are also possible
According to experts, toxins in this group can cause long-term damage, including memory and speech problems. Psychological consequences such as depression are also possible. The scare of the poisoning and the coma that lasted for days did not leave a patient without a trace. However, in the case of possible consequences, it always depends on the dose. La Charité had already announced that the effects of the toxin had been tested several times in independent laboratories.
The Russian government, in turn, called the Berlin Charité’s assessment that Navalny was probably poisoned too hasty. German Chancellor Angela Merkel can still imagine a common European reaction to the possible poisoning of Navalny, the leader of the liberal opposition in Russia. “We will try that too, when we have more clarity on the background,” he said in Berlin on Friday.
He noted that there was such a reaction in the case of the poison attack on former Russian double spy Sergei Skripal in Britain. At that time, nearly 30 Western allies expelled the Russian diplomats. In Navalny’s case, however, it is still unclear whether it was a poison attack and who could be responsible.
