Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was admitted to the Berlin clinic Charité early morning on Aug. 22 to receive medical treatment for a suspected case of poisoning. Doctors have started the examination, a statement on the hospital’s website says.
“Extensive medical diagnostics are currently in progress. After completing the examinations and after consulting the family, the treating physicians will comment on the disease and further treatment steps,” the statement reads.
On Aug. 22 German doctors flew Navalny from an emergency clinic in Omsk, Siberia, where the politician was treated for two days.
On Aug. 20, Navalny fell ill during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk and Navalny was hospitalized. He fell into a coma and was placed on a lung ventilator.
Omsk doctors then concluded that there is no reason to believe Navalny was poisoned. However, relatives and supporters of Navalny do not trust Russian investigators and the ill-equipped Omsk clinic, which is led by a member of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.
The Omsk clinic rejected numerous requests from Navalny’s wife on his transportation to Berlin’s Charité arguing he was in critical condition and could not be transported. The doctors finally agreed after Navalny’s wife Julia personally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow her husband’s transfer.
Navalny’s personal doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, who was not allowed to see him, criticized the official diagnosis of “metabolic disorder” and insisted that her patient was poisoned.
“I do not have even the slightest doubt: this is a poisoning that led to toxic encephalopathy and a coma with convulsive syndrome. No metabolic disorders – especially carbohydrate ones – have such an effect,” Vasilyeva tweeted.
Navalny’s relatives have reasons to question the official version of the origin of his illness.
Russian authorities have a long track record going after the Kremlin’s critics and have allegedly used horrific poisonings before against opposition leaders and those it considered as a political threat. For example, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was allegedly poisoned with a nerve agent while Alexander Litvivevnko, also a former spy, was allegedly poisoned with polonium poured in his cup of tea.
Navalny’s supporters believe that he was poisoned while drinking a hot beverage at an airport in the city of Tomsk. A photo released on social media taken by a Navalny fan appeared to show the opposition leader drinking a hot beverage at a Tomsk airport café.
Moreover, Navalny himself was attacked with dangerous substances before. In 2017, a stranger threw green antiseptic into his eyes. He potentially could have lost his eyesight but eventually recovered. In 2019, Navalny was also hospitalized after a possible poisoning in a detention facility.
Navalny’s wife and his supporters argued that actions by the Russian authorities pose a serious risk to Navalny’s life and are aimed at hiding the evidence of his poisoning.
Russia’s most popular opposition leader fell sick just ahead of the Sept. 13 local elections in Russia, during which he hoped to beat Putin’s United Russia through his “smart vote” strategy – supporting the strongest candidates from any party competing against United Russia.
The apparent poisoning incapacitates Navalny as the Kremlin is increasingly worried about unprecedented protests against strongman Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus and large-scale demonstrations against the arrest of Khabarovsk Krai’s popular governor, Sergei Furgal, in Russia’s Far East.
