Russian Doctors Refuse to Transfer Navalny

'Every hour of stalling creates a threat to his life,' spokeswoman says
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 21, 2020 2:51 AM CDT
Russian Doctors Refuse to Transfer Navalny
In this Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019 photo, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during a rally to support political prisoners in Moscow, Russia.   (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

Doctors in the Siberian city of Omsk refused to authorize the transfer of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny to a German hospital, his spokeswoman said Friday. Navalny remains in a coma in intensive care after a suspected poisoning his allies link to his political activity, the AP reports. "The chief doctor said that Navalny is non-transportable. (His) condition is unstable. Family’s decision to transfer him is not enough," Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh tweeted. Omsk is about 2,500 miles east of Berlin, roughly a six-hour flight.

The 44-year-old Navalny fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk on Thursday and was taken to a hospital after the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. His team says a plane with all the necessary equipment is ready to take Navalny to a German clinic. Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov said Friday that police found "a very dangerous substance" in Navalny’s system, but officials refuse to disclose which substance it is. Yarmysh also said in her tweet that "the ban on transferring Navalny is needed to stall and wait until the poison in his body can no longer be traced. Yet every hour of stalling creates a threat to his life."

(More Alexei Navalny stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X