Alexej Navalny: suspicious tactics in Omsk

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Protester with placard in Saint Petersburg: "Poison is a weapon of a woman, a coward and a eunuch!"

In desperation, Julia Navalnaya even wrote to the man whom her husband had harshly criticized for so many years. "I am officially addressing you," says her letter to President Vladimir Putin, "with the request for a permit to allow Alexei Navalny to be transported to the Federal Republic of Germany." Navalny needs "qualified medical help" in Germany. You stand ready.

On Friday morning, a machine from Germany with doctors on board landed in Omsk, Siberia, to bring Russia's most famous opposition politicians to Berlin at the Charité. Navalny is still in a coma at Emergency Hospital No. 1. But almost twelve more hours had to pass before the clinic's doctors and the authorities gave up their resistance to having the opposition member flown out. In a few hours, the plane should leave Siberia with him on board and fly to Berlin.

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Julia Navalnaja (r.) And Ivan Schdanow in front of the clinic in Omsk

Navalny's wife and colleagues hope to finally find out what is causing the collapse of the opposition. They believe he was poisoned. The 44-year-old had complained of severe pain on board an airplane after just drinking black tea. His condition is considered "serious". But what that means exactly, and above all why the Kremlin critic so suddenly lost consciousness, is still unclear.

In any case, the doctors in Omsk did little to explain why Navalny was still doing so badly on Friday. What's more, they got entangled in more and more contradictions. According to Russian law, it is the physicians who largely decide what happens to a patient. Relatives hardly have the opportunity to exert influence - and so Nawalny's wife Julia and his colleagues remained only one thing: to report on everything that was going on in the clinic on Twitter and in conversations with journalists, and thus to exert pressure.

The question that arose was what it was all about in Omsk for all those hours during which Navalny continued to fight for his life. Were the doctors overwhelmed with the care of a prominent Kremlin critic? Or do the hospital and the authorities have something to hide?

Take over security forces

Photos and videos from Navalny employees and independent journalists on site gave an idea of ​​who had taken control of the clinic. Police officers and men in black suits and dark clothing, typical of the domestic secret service FSB and the investigation committee, an investigative authority subordinate to the president, determined who was allowed to stay where in the clinic and, above all, to Navalny. His wife Julia was not admitted by the doctors for a long time on Friday, and even pushed back by security officers. The German doctors who had flown in were allowed to visit the opposition politician Navalny. But when his co-workers Ivan Zhdanov and Kira Jarmysch tried to contact the doctors, they were pushed away by dark-clad men.

"This is hell. It's like organizing Nawalny's prison break, not a hospital-to-hospital transfer."

Georgiy Alburov, supporter of Navalny, long employee of his foundation for the fight against corruption

All of this didn't seem very human. Especially since the German doctors were then used by the Russian side to explain that Navalny would continue to be treated in Omsk until his condition had stabilized. This was decided by a medical committee with the participation of the Berlin medical professionals, chief physician Aleksandr Murachowskij initially announced.

Nawalny's spokeswoman Jarmysch disagreed after one could establish contact with the German doctors. The doctors considered a transport of Nawalnys quite feasible, the equipment of their aircraft made it possible to transport him safely to Berlin.

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Alexei Namwalny

"This is hell. It is as if we were organizing Navalny's prison break and not a transfer from hospital to hospital," tweeted follower Georgiy Alburov in the meantime. Family, friends and colleagues now believe that the Russian authorities have been playing for so long so that no toxins can be detected in the opposition's body, which is often very difficult in such attacks.

Navalny's supporters also pointed out that Murachowskij is a member of the Kremlin party, United Russia, and thus part of the country's power system. United Russia is the party whose representative Navalny repeatedly presents with his publications. He shows their property and possessions in videos, making the corruption in the country public. His posts are clicked by hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions. Chief physician Murachowskij is not only a simple member of the party, but also one of its representatives in the city parliament, where he also heads the social committee as deputy chief. So was there also political influence to delay the transport of the Kremlin critic, as Navalny's family and colleagues suspect?

"Very strange and really scary"

It will hardly be possible to prove that. What became clear, however, how strange the explanations of the doctors seemed, and they made some:

• They repeatedly called Navalny's condition stable, only to then explain again that the patient was not transportable .

• According to tests, it is assumed that Navalny was not poisoned , said the deputy chief physician Anatoly Kalinichenko. A police officer in the room of the chief doctor Navalnys employee Zhdanov had previously announced that an allegedly dangerous substance was in the body of the opposition member. Therefore it could not be flown out, everyone would also have to wear protective clothing to visit it. The officer did not want to say which substance that was, "investigation secret".

• Head physician Murachowsky then announced that further tests would be carried out and the results will be available in two days. He also announced via video that the doctors “work diagnosis” was that Navalny was suffering from a metabolic disorder, the cause being a low blood sugar level.

Moscow cardiologist Yaroslav Aschichmim told SPIEGEL that these were symptoms, not a real diagnosis. "What happened in the clinic in Omsk is all very strange and really frightening." He has been treating Navalny for seven years now, "he has never had sugar or any previous illnesses, he was fit". Why should such a healthy man suddenly collapse like this?

Second Russian poisoning case

Aschichmim had also campaigned for the emigration to an EU country and had already contacted clinics in Hanover, Essen and Strasbourg. The fact that Navalny is now to be brought to the Charité in Berlin goes back to Pyotr Wersilow. The member of the Russian political punk band Pussy Riot could suddenly no longer speak in 2018, could no longer move and, like Navalny, now lost consciousness two years later. He was finally brought to Berlin and treated with the help of the Cinema for Peace organization. At the Charité, the doctors said at the time that they thought Versilov's poisoning was very likely.

Leonid Volkov, campaign manager and confidante of Navalny, now hopes that the doctors can also save the opposition politician. He also told SPIEGEL that the opportunity to fly Navalny to Berlin was the fastest.

At the end of this long day, the Omsk doctors finally decided: Poisoning Navalny could "definitely" be ruled out, claimed Deputy Chief Physician Kalinichenko. The patient shows a "positive dynamic".

Collaboration: Marcel Rosenbach, Berlin; Alexander Chernyshev, Moscow