Russian Doctors Refuse Permission to Fly Comatose Alexei Navalny to Germany

Russian doctors refused permission to move opposition politician Alexei Navalny on Friday, saying he is too ill to allow him to board an emergency flight to Germany, Deutsche Welle reports. 

The article reads that a German human rights group had hoped to bring Navalny to Berlin for treatment after a suspected poisoning left him comatose. 

A Cinema For Peace Foundation spokesperson told DW that Berlin Charite hospital was ready to treat Navalny. A plane left Nuremberg in the early hours of Friday and landed just after midday in the Russian city of Omsk — some 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) east of Moscow.

"If Navalny is in a state to be transported ... The plane will immediately fly to Berlin. His wife will accompany him."

"However, just before the plane landed, doctors said he was still too ill to be transported," reads the publication. 

His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said that this decision could doom Navalny.

"The ban on transporting Alexei is a direct threat to his life. It is deadly to remain in Omsk hospital without equipment or a diagnosis," Yarmysh said on Twitter.

She later wrote that relatives and supporters would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights for obstructing his transport.

"The head doctor treating Navalny said his condition had improved a little, but that there were legal questions that needed to be resolved before he could leave," DW reports. 

Well-known Putin critic, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was hospitalized yesterday with suspected poisoning.

His press secretary said Mr. Navalny fell ill shortly after takeoff on an early morning flight from Tomsk, Siberia to Moscow. The pilot was forced to make an emergency stop 500 miles away in Omsk, where he was rushed to a hospital. Doctors concluded he had been poisoned via a hot liquid.

By Ana Dumbadze 

Source: Deutsche Welle