Hospital doctor: too risky to transport Navalny

The chief doctor at the hospital where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is currently being treated said on Friday the politician was in an "unstable and serious condition".

Navalny, who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, was admitted to an intensive care unit in a coma in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday after falling ill on a flight.

His supporters believe he's been poisoned and that the Kremlin was behind it.

A plane with German specialists and equipment necessary to transfer Navalny for treatment in Berlin landed at Omsk airport on Friday morning, but doctors at the Siberian hospital said his condition was too unstable to transport him.

Speaking at the Omsk Ambulance Hospital No. 1 where Navalny remains, chief doctor Alexander Murakhovsky said there were "too many risks" in trying to move the 44-year-old.

Murakhovsky also said tests had been carried out on of parts of Navalny's skin and clothes.

He said they had revealed he had been contact with an "industrial chemistry that is used in plastic cups."

German doctors have since examined Navalny and declared him fit to fly in the special medical plane.

Later, the deputy chief doctor at the hospital said the politician would, after all, be allowed to leave for Germany.

He's expected to be flown to Berlin on Saturday morning, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing airport officials.