Kremlin Refuses to Have Navalny Flown to Germany for Treatment, or have German Doctors Examine Him in Russia

Murakhovsky’s comments came after Yarmysh quoted Navalny’s associate, Ivan Zhdanov, as saying that “a police officer at the hospital had just said that a poison was found in Aleksei’s body, which was dangerous not only for him, but also for those around him.”

Navalny’s personal doctor said she does not trust the “metabolic disorder” verdict of the Omsk doctors.

“A metabolic disorder can be caused by a huge number of diseases. “It’s a condition, not a diagnosis, Anastasia Vasilyeva wrote on Twitter.

“Again, they take us for idiots: they say intelligent common words, but we can’t establish the cause of coma and the diagnosis.”

She repeated her opinion that Navalny was poisoned. “It’s a poisoning that has caused a severe metabolic disorder. A despicable substitution of terms,” Vasilyeva said.

“If the diagnosis is just a ‘metabolic disorder,’ then why isn’t Alexei released to Berlin? Because they are waiting three days so that there are no traces of poison left in the body, and in Europe it will no longer be possible to identify this toxic substance.”

Yulia Nvalany, who was prevented from seeing her husband when she arrived at the hospital, said doctors were playing for time so that “the chemical that is in Alexei’s body might disappear”.

“We cannot trust this hospital and we demand that they release him to us,” she told reporters.

The European Union has asked for a swift investigation into what caused Navalny to fall into a coma.

“We are very worried about Aleksei Navalny’s health following his suspected poisoning yesterday,” EU spokeswoman for foreign affairs and security policy Nabila Massrali said on 21 August.

“We expect a swift, independent, and transparent investigation. If confirmed, those responsible must be held to account,” Massrali added, urging Russia to permit Navalny to be transferred abroad for treatment.

Peskov told reporters that Russian law enforcement would launch an investigation if poisoning was confirmed, but TASS quoted an unidentified law enforcement source as saying that there were “no grounds for opening a criminal case, no crime elements have been identified.”

‘Very Courageous Man’

White House national-security adviser Robert O’Brien said on August 20 that the suspected poisoning was “extraordinarily concerning” and could have an impact on U.S.-Russia relations.

“He’s a very courageous man. He is a very courageous politician to have stood up to [Russian President] Putin inside Russia, and our thoughts and our prayers are with him and his family,” O’Brien said in an interview on Fox News.

“It’s extraordinarily concerning and if the Russians were behind this…it’s something that we’re going to factor into how we deal with the Russians going forward,” he said.

Navalny, who has exposed rampant corruption in Russia, has suffered physical attacks in the past.

He endured chemical burns to one of his eyes in 2017 after he was assaulted with antiseptic dye.

In July 2019, Navalny was given a 30-day jail term after calling for unauthorized protests. During that jail sentence, he was taken to a hospital with severe swelling of the face and a rash, and later alleged he was poisoned.

He has been jailed several times in recent years, barred from running for president, and had a bid to run for Moscow mayor blocked.

The head of the legal department of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Navalny founded, Vyacheslav Gimadi, wrote on Twitter, “There is no doubt that Navalny was poisoned for his political position and activity.”

This article is reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Material based on stories in The Telegraph and Deutsche Welle was added to the original article.