Omsk, Russia — The life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being put at risk by Russian doctors refusing to let him be moved from the Siberian hospital where he's being treated for a suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman charged on Friday. "The chief doctor stated that Navalny is not transportable. Condition is unstable," Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.
"The ban on transporting Alexei is a direct threat to his life. It is deadly to remain in the Omsk hospital without equipment or a diagnosis," she continued.
Yarmysh said an air ambulance dispatched to fly him to Germany for treatment was due to land shortly. The Reuters news agency reported that the plane had landed in Omsk.
Germany and France had both offered to help.
"The ban on the transportation of Navalny is an attempt on his life, which is being made right now by doctors and the deceitful authorities who sanctioned it."
A woman at a gathering to show support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on August 20, 2020. Alexei Navalny was admitted to hospital in Omsk on Thursday suffering symptoms of what his spokeswoman called poisoning. The placard reads: "Navalny was poisoned. We know who is to blame. Alexei, live."
IGOR RUSSAK / REUTERS
The Reuters news agency reports that the head doctor treating Navalny said Friday his condition had improved somewhat but that it was moving him that could mean risking his life because he was still unstable. The doctor, Alexander Murakhovsky, said there were five possible diagnoses but tests results wouldn't be in until Sunday. He wouldn't say whether Navalny was poisoned.
Murakhovsky added that many legal questions would need to be addressed before Navalny could me moved out of Russia. He said leading doctors had been flown in from Moscow to aid in Navalny's care.
Navalny, a 44-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner who is among President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, was hospitalized in Omsk Thursday after he lost consciousness on a flight and his plane made an emergency landing.
Doctors said they were working to save his life after he went into a coma and was put on a ventilator in intensive care.
His supporters believe he was poisoned because of his political activities.
Navalny's team has said that the hospital in Omsk is ill-equipped and that a doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, said she had asked for the Kremlin's help to transfer him to a European clinic.