This archive report was first published on 22 August 2020.
Navalny Stable in Berlin Hospital ¶
On August 22, 2020, Alexei Navalny, a 44-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner, was admitted to the Charite hospital in Berlin, Germany, after being flown there for treatment following a suspected poisoning.
Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, had fallen into a coma after suddenly falling ill on a plane to Moscow that had to make an emergency landing in Omsk.
His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, had appealed directly to Putin to let him leave, while his aides asked the European Court of Human Rights to intervene.
Navalny's condition was described as stable by Jaka Bizilj, the head of the Cinema for Peace foundation that brought Navalny to Germany in a chartered medical plane.
Doctors treating him in Omsk had refused to let Navalny leave but reversed course after his family and staff demanded he be allowed to travel to Germany.
Navalny's spokesman, Kira Yarmysh, said he had neither drunk alcohol nor taken any medication, and that the air ambulance arrived in Omsk on Friday morning but Russian doctors initially said Navalny was too 'unstable' to be moved.
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.
Navalny has made many enemies with his anti-corruption investigations, which often reveal the lavish lifestyles of Russia's elite and attract millions of views online.
His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said she was sure he had suffered from an 'intentional poisoning' and blamed Putin, claiming Russia's refusal to evacuate Navalny was a ploy to 'play for time' and make it impossible to trace poison, posing a 'critical threat to his life.'
Many supporters expressed relief he was going for treatment outside Russia, with fellow opposition politician Ilya Yashin tweeting, 'I feel as relieved now as if terrorists had freed a hostage after long negotiations.'
