DECRYPTION
Alexeï Navalny, number one opponent in the Kremlin, became ill on board a plane before being hospitalized in Omsk, placed in intensive care, in a coma and on artificial respiration. His condition was deemed "unstable and difficult" on Friday. His allies have said they believe he was the victim of "intentional poisoning", "with something mixed with his tea". But the doctors say they have found "no poison in his body." After refusing his transfer abroad, demanded by his relatives and offered by Germany, the Russian hospital finally agreed to his evacuation late Friday afternoon, considering that his condition was now "stable ". Europe 1 takes stock of the situation.
Who is Alexeï Navalny?
Alexei Navalny is the main opponent of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. His publications denouncing the corruption of Russian elites are widely shared on social networks. The opponent has been sentenced to short prison terms several times in the past, in particular because of the organization of demonstrations. His organization and its supporters are regularly subjected to pressure, arrests and legal proceedings. In recent days, Alexeï Navalny has been campaigning for the opposition candidates for the regional elections in September.
The 44-year-old has already been the victim of physical attacks. In 2017, he was sprayed with an antiseptic product in his eyes when leaving his office in Moscow. In July 2019, while serving a short prison sentence, he was treated in hospital after suddenly suffering from an abscess on his upper body, denouncing poisoning as authorities cited an "allergic reaction".
Has Alexei Navalny been poisoned?
The opponent's entourage says they are convinced that Alexeï Navalny was poisoned via a hot drink taken at the airport in Siberia, just before his flight to Moscow. On Friday, doctors treating the main Russian opponent said they had found "no poison" in his body. "To date, no poisons have been identified in blood and urine, there are no traces of such a presence," Anatoly Kalinichenko, deputy director of the hospital, told reporters. Emergency No. 1 in Omsk where the opponent was admitted. "We do not believe he suffered from poisoning," he continued.
According to the hospital's chief doctor, Alexander Murakhovsky, the preferred hypothesis is that of a "carbohydrate imbalance, that is to say a metabolic disorder" in the opponent, which could have been caused by "a sharp drop in blood sugar level", which measures the level of sugar in the blood.
Many opponents of the Kremlin have been victims of poisoning in recent years, in Russia or abroad. Two high-profile poisoning cases notably took place in the United Kingdom in 2018 and 2006 on former Russian secret agents. Several Russian opponents who have also been hospitalized have denounced poisonings in recent years. Each time, the Russian authorities have denied any responsibility.
Alexeï Navalny will he be transferred to Germany?
Friday, at the end of the afternoon, the hospital where Alexeï Navalny was admitted gave its agreement for his evacuation, considering that his condition was now "stable". "We have taken the decision not to oppose his being transported to another hospital, the one designated by his relatives," Anatoly Kalinichenko, deputy director of the emergency hospital, told reporters. ° 1 from Omsk.
A medical plane chartered by an NGO landed on Friday in Omsk, Western Siberia, with the hope of bringing Alexei Navalny to Germany. And the doctors of this flight, who were first "refused access to the patient, obtained it only a few minutes ago", had previously announced Leonid Volkov, the right arm of Alexeï Navalny, Friday after -midday at a press conference in Berlin, welcoming a "positive development". France and Germany both offered Thursday "all medical assistance" to the opponent, while calling for shedding light on the circumstances that led to his hospitalization in intensive care, in a coma and connected to an artificial respirator.
"We are very far from having resolved the situation," added Leonid Volkov, however, recalling that Alexey Navalny had according to him still not been the subject of "diagnosis" or "analysis". "No reliable data, no independent data is accessible to us and our request remains the same: we have to move it to a place, in Berlin, so that it can be the subject of an independent analysis of what is happening to it" asked Leonid Volkov.
Yulia Navalnaïa, the wife of the Russian opponent, asked Vladimir Putin on Friday to allow her husband to be transferred to Germany. "I believe that Alexeï Navalny needs qualified medical help in Germany", wrote Yulia Navalnaïa in a letter posted on Twitter, considering that "all the possibilities for the immediate transport of Alexeï under the supervision of doctors from high level "since the arrival in Omsk of the medical plane chartered by a German NGO.
The entourage of Alexeï Navalny had seized Friday the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to obtain from the Russian authorities the authorization to transfer him to Germany "to be treated there". The ECHR, which sits in Strasbourg, had been seized under article 39 of its rules which allows it to take emergency measures when the physical integrity of an applicant is threatened.
Why did the doctors refuse his transfer abroad?
Before the announcement of a possible transfer late Friday afternoon, the deputy director of the Omsk hospital, had judged that the state of Alexey Navalny being "unstable", that did not allow his immediate transfer abroad. The hospital's chief doctor, Alexander Murakhovsky, had also ruled that the question of a transfer was "premature" before "a complete stabilization of the patient". He also said he had to settle "certain legal questions" before letting European doctors see Alexeï Navalny.
This refusal to transfer the opponent abroad has been denounced by his right-hand man Leonid Volkov as a "political decision and not a medical one". "They wait for the toxins to come out and stop being detectable in the body. There is no diagnosis or analysis. Alexei's life is in great danger," he wrote on Twitter. The Kremlin, for its part, considered that it was a "purely medical" decision and that the Russian doctors were doing "everything possible to establish the reasons for the patient's discomfort and cure him".
The spokesperson for the opponent, Kira Iarmych, for her part, considered that it would be "mortally dangerous" to leave him in the "unequipped" hospital in Omsk. "Refusing Navalny's transfer is only necessary to gain time and wait until the poison can no longer be detected in his body," she assured on Twitter. "We cannot trust this hospital, and we demand that it be returned to us so that we can have it treated in an independent hospital", also said the opponent's wife, Yulia Navalnaïa.