Russian dissident Alexi Navalny visited by wife Yulia, top aide at German hospital

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s staunch critic Alexei Navalny, who was recently transferred to a German hospital from Siberia, was visited by wife Yulia along with a top aide on Sunday, August 23. Navalny was flown to Germany on Saturday after doctors eventually allowed his transportation following a massive push from his family and supporters. He is now undergoing treatment at Berlin’s Charité hospital.

Agency sources have quoted the hospital spokesperson Manuela Zingl saying that the 44-year-old will be undergoing extensive diagnostic tests and infirmed that doctor would not be commenting on his illness or the treatment until the results are evaluated. Yulia and aide Leonid Volkov visited the Putin critic on Sunday but refused to speak with the media. 

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Navalny is a political leader and a corruption investigator who is one of the most public and fierce critics of Vladimir Putin. He had fallen ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia last week on Thursday, August 20. He was then admitted to a hospital in the city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.

Even though the doctors suggested ‘metabolic disorder’ due to low blood sugar causing Navalny to fall into a coma, his supporters argue that his tea cup at the airport was poisoned. 

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Navalny's supporters blame Kremlin

Navalny’s supporters have even placed the blame of both, his illness and the delay in transfer to the German hospital, on Kremlin. Russian health authorities on Sunday also said that as per the tests that they had conducted so far, no traces of poison were retrieved but they found an industrial chemical in the skin and hair of the 44-year-old.

A local newspaper reported that Navalny was under police surveillance before falling critically ill on August 20 and cited a law enforcement officer as its source.

Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh is reported to have said that it is a matter of shame that the Russian doctors took so long to approve his flight to Germany even though the documents were signed on Friday morning. The Putin critic will be taken to Germany on Saturday morning. 

The 44-year-old’s wife Yulia Navalny had previously written to the Russian President requesting her husband’s immediate transfer. Eventually, the German doctors were ‘allowed’ to see Navalny and said they will be able to airlift the patient out of the local Siberian hospital to Berlin. But the delay drew more backlash from Navalny’s supporters who alleged that it was another plot by the authorities to let the poison become untraceable in his blood. 

(With AP inputs)

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