Russian doctors treating opposition leader Alexei Navalny said they don’t believe he was poisoned — but his wife blasted them as untrustworthy and accused them of a cover-up for refusing to transfer him to another hospital.
Anatoly Kalinichenko, deputy chief doctor at Omsk hospital, said no traces of poison were found in Navalny’s body, while refusing to release his diagnosis to reporters.
“Poisoning as a diagnosis remains on the back burner, but we don’t believe that the patient suffered from poisoning,” he said Friday.
Kalinichenko said the diagnosis has been relayed to Navalny’s family members but he wouldn’t disclose it to reporters, citing confidentiality laws.
Doctors also refused to transfer Navalny to a hospital in Germany, saying his condition is unstable, Kalinichenko’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.
But Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, accused the doctors of denying his transfer to cover up the alleged poisoning.
Omsk Ambulance Hospital, where Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is stayingYevgeny Sofiychuk/TASS“They refuse to transport him. They say that they can’t do it now and that he is not transportable even though two hours ago we were preparing documents for his transportation. That’s why the transport police were here actually,” she said at a press conference, according to CNN.
“We think of course that it is done to make the chemical substance that is in Alexey’s body disappear. That is why he is not given to us of course, so that the substance residues disappear.”
Navalny’s wife, Yulia (left), and FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation) head Ivan Zhdanov walk outside Omsk Ambulance Hospital No. 1, where Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is staying.Yevgeny Sofiychuk/TASSNavalnaya said she wanted her husband transferred to “an independent hospital whose doctors we trust.”
The fierce Kremlin critic was left in a coma after allegedly drinking poison that his aides believe was slipped into his tea at Russia’s Tomsk airport Wednesday.
Navalny, 44, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow, with witnesses saying he was “screaming in pain.”
He was admitted to an intensive care unit in a coma at a hospital in Omsk on Thursday.
Earlier Friday, Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said police found traces of a dangerous poisonous substance in Navalny’s system but didn’t say which one.
Police officials didn’t confirm that.
With Post wires
