Doctors Clear Navalny to Travel to Germany After Appeal to Putin

(Bloomberg) — Russian doctors cleared the way for prominent anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny to receive medical treatment abroad for his suspected poisoning after his wife appealed directly to President Vladimir Putin.

Local doctors approved his transportation after consultations with German medics, the state-controlled RIA Novosti news service reported, citing Anatoly Kalinichenko, the deputy head of the hospital where Navalny is being treated.

The hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk had previously refused to discharge Navalny, saying his condition was too unstable to allow him to travel, despite his family’s requests. A German medical plane arrived Friday to bring him to Berlin.

The German medical team determined that Navalny was fit for transport, Deutsche Welle reported, citing a statement from the group that was organizing his evacuation.

The head doctor at the Omsk hospital, Alexander Murakhovsky, said Navalny is suffering from a metabolic disorder, the Interfax news service reported. Earlier Friday, another doctor said tests showed no traces of toxins, according to a video posted by the Kremlin critic’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.

Earlier in the day, Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya appealed directly to Putin to allow her husband seek treatment in Germany.

The case has drawn international attention. U.S. President Donald Trump said he’s looking into the situation, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a probe of the incident and French President Emmanuel Macron said he’s extremely concerned.

Navalny, 44, fell ill on a plane returning to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk on Thursday. He was in the city meeting local activists and opposition candidates ahead of regional elections in September, and Yarmysh said he’d only had a cup of tea that day before the flight. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was put on a ventilator and remains unconscious in serious condition.

The Kremlin hasn’t done anything to hinder Navalny’s medical evacuation, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to reporters’ questions Friday.

The delay was caused by the Kremlin and every lost hour “poses a critical threat” to Navalny’s life, Yarmysh said.

The ruble was among the weakest performers in emerging markets for a second day on Friday, breaching 75 versus the dollar for the first time in four months. While oil has weakened, domestic politics were also a factor in the move, Rosbank analyst Yury Tulinov said.

Navalny’s widely-viewed exposes about corruption in Putin’s inner circle have made him countless enemies over the years. He has a huge following on social media, with 2.2 million subscribers on Twitter alone, and his YouTube channel regularly posts investigations that have embarrassed top allies of Putin, such as former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, for their lavish lifestyles.

Merkel, who discussed the situation with Macron on Thursday, said Germany will insist on finding out why the Kremlin critic collapsed into a coma. “We were shocked about the news of Navalny’s condition,” she said.

The German government is supporting the initiative to transport and treat Navalny at a Berlin clinic, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

Macron said France is also ready to provide assistance to Navalny and his family “in terms of health, asylum and protection.”

Sudden Illness

Navalny became Russia’s most prominent opposition activist during massive 2011-2012 protests against Putin’s return to the Kremlin for a third term following four years as prime minister.

His sudden illness has raised suspicions following a string of Kremlin critics who’ve been victims of poisoning, including dissident security service officer Alexander Litvinenko and ex-spy Sergei Skripal. U.K. officials link both attacks to the Russian state.

Activist Pyotr Verzilov, who led a pitch invasion during the 2018 soccer World Cup final game to protest Putin’s rule, was treated for what doctors said were symptoms of poisoning later that year. The chief coordinator for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia organization, Vladimir Kara-Murza, suffered acute kidney failure after being poisoned in 2015, later making a recovery after being flown to the U.S.

“No matter whether it’s an attempted murder or just scare tactics, poisonings are pretty much always somehow connected to the security services,” Tatiana Stanovaya, head of R. Politik, a political consultancy, said in a social media post.