Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will survive 'poison attack', says flight organiser Bizilj

Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny will survive the health scare after falling critically ill due to suspected poisoning, said the founder of the NGO, which sent an air ambulance to Siberia, told a German tabloid. Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for Peace Foundation, said that though the Russian opposition leader will survive the “poison attack”, he won’t be able to get to political work for months, highlighting the "worrying overall situation."

Kira Yarmysh, the press secretary of the 44-year-old Russian leader, tweeted on August 24 that there are no new details about Navalny's health at the moment, urging everyone to be patient and not react to rumours and fake news. She further added that the family of Putin’s critic has not authorised anyone to make statements in the press about his health on their behalf.

Navalny was flown to Germany as doctors allowed him, after a brief reluctance, to be airlifted from Russia for further treatment. Yarmysh had shared a photograph on Twitter, saying Navalny was airlifted from Omsk on August 22 along with his wife Yulia Navalnaya who had requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to approve the transfer of her husband from local Siberian hospital to Berlin.

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Citing Navalny’s ‘unstable’ health condition, Russian authorities had denied permission to airlift him on a German plane with specialist doctors for further treatment in Berlin. Georgy Alburov, a researcher at Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that the only reason not to let the Putin’s critic go on a plane with specialists is to deny him high-quality medical support and wait until the traces of the poison disappear.  

Suspected poisoning

The top aides of Russia’s opposition figure have suspected a possible poisoning since Navalny has been a staunch critic of Putin and his allies. However, the hospital in Omsk, where Navalny was earlier admitted, said that doctors found no traces of poison in his blood and denied the disclosure of full diagnosis.

Read: Putin's Critic Alexei Navalny 'stable' After Landing In Berlin For Treatment

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