After opposition politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned in August 2020, he was taken to a hospital in Omsk.
While still in a coma in the hospital, chief physician Alexander Murachovsky went to a press conference and stated that the politician was not poisoned.
The same doctor also stated that Navalny was still in too poor a condition to be transported to Berlin for treatment.
Questioned by the opposition
After Alexei Navalny nevertheless finally received care in Germany, the Swedish FOI, the Swedish Defense Research Agency, was able to establish that it was a poisoning.
The chief physician's actions have also been questioned by opposition figures in Russia.
And the criticism has grown further after the chief physician during the autumn made a lightning career in the public administration in Omsk.
Shortly afterwards, he became head of a major hospital in the region.
In November, he was appointed Minister of Health in the Omsk region.
Several doctors killed
Alexander Murachovsky has now disappeared without a trace.
According to, among others, the regime-critical Russian news site news.ru.com, the doctor is said to have gone out hunting on Friday and has not returned.
On Saturday, his relatives are said to have reported the disappearance and a large search operation with both police, volunteers, helicopters and drones is said to have been looking for him during the weekend.
Since Alexei Navalny was treated in Omsk, two of his other doctors at the time have died.
The deputy chief physician at the hospital died in February this year at the age of 55.
The official explanation is that he had a heart attack.
Another chief physician at the hospital died in March this year at the age of 63 after suffering a stroke, according to the official cause of death.
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Navalny was stopped at passport control at the Arrivals Terminal at Sheremetevo Airport.
He was arrested shortly afterwards.
Photo: Reuters
Serving a prison sentence
Whether there is any connection between the deaths is unclear.
But in connection with the disappearance, they are now being lifted again by Russian-critical media that are speculating about possible connections to the care of Alexei Navalny.
When the opposition politician returned to Russia in January, he was immediately arrested.
He is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for embezzlement.
The sentence is an old conditional sentence that was converted into prison on the grounds that he had violated the duty to report during his time in hospital in Germany.
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He has been described as the man Putin fears the most.
But who is Alexei Navalny - the answer you get in the player.
Photo: TT