Poisoned Russian opposition leader’s condition worsens, to be moved to Germany

Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny who is fighting for his life in a hospital in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning during a flight to Moscow is set to be airlifted to Germany.

Reports say an ambulance aircraft with a team specialised in treating coma patients was reported to have left Germany early on Friday morning at exactly 04:32 GMT to collect Navalny.

French President Emmanuel Macron had earlier said that France was ready to provide help in relation to Navalny’s treatment, asylum or protection while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Russian opposition politician could get treatment in either country.

Merkel said the news had truly “upset” her.

“I hope that he can recover and naturally whether it be in France or Germany he can receive from us all the help and medical support needed,” she said.

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh informed that her boss was flying from Siberia to Moscow after a work trip to Tomsk when his plane made an emergency landing after he fell ill.

According to her, Navalny a serial critic of President Vladimir Putin is in a coma and on a ventilator in a hospital in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning adding that he was sweating on the plane and asked her to talk to him so that he could “focus on a sound of a voice”. He then went to the bathroom and lost consciousness.

“Alexei has toxic poisoning,” Yarmysh wrote on Twitter, adding that he was “now in intensive care”.

“We think that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed in his tea. That was the only thing he drank in the morning,” she said. “Doctors say the poison was quickly absorbed through the hot liquid.”

“Alexei is still unconscious. He was put under ventilator. Police were called to the hospital on our demand,” said Yarmysh.