The main Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, in a coma after what his relatives claim to be “poisoning”, was hospitalized in Berlin on Saturday in “stable” condition after a transfer from Russia.
His convoy escorted by the police and including two yellow ambulances arrived shortly after 10:20 local (08:20 GMT) at the emergency department of the Charité hospital, one of the most famous in Europe, AFP noted.
“Alexeï Navalny’s state of health is stable”, assured AFP the leader of the German NGO Cinema for peace, Jaka Bizilj, who chartered the ambulance by which the opponent was brought back after an arm wrestling match between his relatives and the Russian authorities.
“No poison discovered” according to the ministry
The management of the hospital said that the doctors were proceeding “at present to a comprehensive medical diagnosis” which should take “some time”. They only planned to speak after these exams.
The entourage of the most famous of the opponents of the Kremlin has said since Thursday that he was the victim of “intentional poisoning”, “with something mixed with his tea”, which Russian doctors have refuted.
For its part, the Ministry of Health of the Omsk region said on Saturday that “caffeine and alcohol were found in urine“of the opponent. “No convulsive or synthetic poison was found“, according to the ministry’s statement.
A tense face-to-face between relatives and doctors
But Mr Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Iarmych, said as early as Thursday that he had neither drunk nor taken any medication. The private jet, which had taken off from the Siberian city of Omsk, touched down around 8.47am local time (6.47am GMT) on the tarmac at Tegel Airport in northwest Berlin.
The aircraft was originally scheduled to land at Schönefeld Airport in the southeast of the city. But he eventually headed for the other airport in the German capital. Mr. Navalny remained in the plane immobilized on the tarmac for more than an hour before being transferred.
His arrival in the German capital comes after a day of tense face to face between his relatives and Russian doctors over his evacuation.
“Thank you all for your perseverance. Without your support we would not have been able to take him!”, thanked before takeoff, on Instagram the opponent’s wife, Yulia Navalnaïa, who accompanied him on the flight.
The Russian hospital where the former lawyer was admitted on Thursday gave the green light Friday evening to his transport to Germany after initially opposing it.
Without this emergency landing he would have died
Alexei Navalny was on Thursday from Tomsk, Siberia, to Moscow by plane when he became unwell. The aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Omsk.
“Without this emergency landing he would have died”, assured Mr. Bizilj.
After being admitted to the hospital in this western Siberian city, he was placed in intensive care under artificial respiration. He was in a coma, in serious condition before leaving for the German capital.
Cinema for peace, committed to the defense of human rights, assured financing this medical transport with private funds but without revealing the names of the donors it solicited at short notice, according to Mr. Bizilj.
The opponent’s family had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights
Russian doctors have emphasized favoring the hypothesis of a “carbohydrate imbalance”, caused by a drop in blood sugar levels.
Navalny’s spokeswoman attributed the Russian doctors’ initial refusal to let him go to an intention to “buy time and wait until the poison can no longer be detected in his body.”
The hospital finally gave its approval in the evening, after the examination by the German doctors of the patient, a letter from his wife Yulia Navalnaya urging President Vladimir Putin to authorize the evacuation. The opponent’s family also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The Charité hospital in Berlin treated in 2018 another Russian opponent, Piotr Verzilov, transported in serious condition from Moscow by the same NGO. German doctors had concluded that he had been “very likely” a victim of poisoning.
Main opponent of the Kremlin, whose publications denouncing the corruption of Russian elites are widely shared on the internet, Alexeï Navalny has already been the victim of several physical attacks.
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