The Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is expected to be flown to Germany early on Saturday morning to receive treatment for a suspected poisoning that has left him in a coma for 36 hours. Doctors treating Navalny in the Siberian city of Omsk permitted his discharge after a tense 12-hour standoff with his family and aides, who said Navalny’s life was in danger in Russia.“The patient is in stable condition … we do not object to his transfer to another hospital, as will be indicated by his relatives,” the deputy chief doctor Anatoly Kalinichenko said on Friday night, reversing an early decision to keep Navalny at the hospital on medical grounds. Navalany was taken to the airport early on Saturday morning according to his spokeswoman: “Alexei Navalny has been loaded into an ambulance and they are taking him to the airport,” Kira Yarmysh tweeted. Navalny’s wife had appealed directly to Vladimir Putin to allow the evacuation. A medical plane chartered by a German NGO has been waiting at Omsk airport since early Friday morning to take him to Berlin’s Charité hospital. Yarmysh, said hospital officials had suddenly reversed their position on Friday evening. “It is a pity that it took so long for the doctors to make this decision. The plane has been waiting since this morning, the documents were also ready then.”In a letter addressed to the Russian president’s administration earlier in the day, Yulia Navalnaya wrote that her husband “needs qualified medical assistance” and asked for permission to transport Navalny to Germany. Navalny, a fierce critic of Putin, has been in hospital in a coma and on a ventilator since he suddenly fell ill on a flight on Thursday. A Kremlin spokesman had previously said he would provide assistance in evacuating the opposition critic, if asked directly. A medical plane chartered by a German NGO was waiting at Omsk airport on Friday to take him to Berlin after their doctors had reportedly said Navalny’s condition was such that he’d be able to travel.

All data is taken from the source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Article Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/21/alexei-navalny-to-be-flown-to-germany-for-suspected-poisoning-treatment


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