Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is still in hospital in the Russian city of Omsk, after he collapsed yesterday in what is suspected to be a poisoning incident, The Telegraph reports.
His wife arrived at the hospital yesterday afternoon with the family's private physician, and after a struggle with hospital authorities, finally gained access to her husband. Navalny's family then made plans to evacuate him to a hospital in Berlin, Germany, citing concerns that the hospital could not be relied upon to treat him expertly, but doctors are now refusing to release their patient, arguing that he is too sick to fly.
Navalny is currently in a coma and on a ventilator, after collapsing on a flight from Tomsk in Siberia headed to Moscow, where he lives. He apparently ate and drank nothing prior to the flight other than a cup of tea, which his aides now claim was poisoned. His symptoms of intense, agonizing pains shortly after drinking the beverage are consistent with poisoning; mobile phone footage shot in the plan shows him screaming in agony before being taken off the plane by medical personnel, pale and prone.
However, the hospital's head doctor, Alexander Murakhovsky, insists that doctors treating Navalny "do not believe that the patient has been poisoned ... We have a diagnosis ... [that] I can't announce ... but it has been told to his wife."
Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh said the decision to delay his evacuation to the European clinic was "an attempt on his life," and his wife, Yulia, told journalists at the hospital this morning that, "We demand they release him to us so we can treat him in an independent hospital with doctors whom we trust."
The Kremlin had earlier indicated that it would authorize the transport to a hospital in Germany, which has already agreed to admit him, despite bans on direct flights to EU countries due to the coronavirus pandemic.