This archive report was first published on 22 August 2020.
On August 22, 2020, an air ambulance took off from Omsk, Russia, carrying Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to Germany for treatment of a suspected poisoning.
Navalny, 44, a lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner, fell into a coma after becoming suddenly ill on a plane to Moscow from Tomsk that had to make an emergency landing in Omsk.
His aides believe he was poisoned, apparently by a cup of tea at the airport, though Russian doctors said tests showed no trace of any poison.
Doctors treating him in Omsk initially refused to let Navalny leave but reversed course after his family and staff demanded he be allowed to travel to Germany.
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh posted a picture on Twitter of him being lifted into the plane on a covered stretcher, saying his wife Yulia was with him.
European Union leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, have voiced concern for Navalny, who has faced repeated physical attacks and prosecutions in more than a decade of opposition to Russian authorities.
