Russian doctors allow Kremlin critic Navalny to be airlifted to Germany

MOSCOW: Russian doctors gave a dissident who is in a coma after a suspected poisoning permission to be transferred abroad for medical treatment, a senior physician said on Friday. The reversal came after more than 24 hours of wrangling over Alexei Navalny’s condition and treatment.

Navalny, a 44-year-old politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, was admitted to an intensive care unit in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday. His supporters believe he was poisoned and that the Kremlin is behind it.

His family and supporters wanted him brought to a top German medical clinic, but his physicians in Omsk said he was too unstable to move, even after a plane with German specialists and advanced equipment arrived. A senior doctor in Omsk said the team did not believe he was poisoned.


The German doctors later examined Navalny and said he was fit to be transported, according to a representative of the charity that has organised the plane to bring him to Berlin. The Russian medical team then relented and deputy chief doctor of the Omsk hospital Anatoly Kalinichenko told reporters on Friday that he would be allowed to leave. The flight was scheduled for Saturday morning, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing airport officials.