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Alexander Murachowski 2018 in Omsk
Photo: Evgeniy Sofiychuk / dpa
A Russian doctor, in whose hospital the Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny was treated after a poison attack in 2020, is considered missing.
Alexander Murachowski did not return from a hunting trip on Friday, the state agency Tass reported, citing a police spokesman.
The Kremlin website Life.ru reports that two bears had previously been spotted in the area where Murachowski disappeared.
Until a few months ago, Murachowski headed the Omsk clinic, to which Navalny was taken after collapsing on a domestic flight last August.
The 44-year-old opposition member was later flown to Germany and treated for weeks at the Berlin Charité.
Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden later found traces of the military agent Novichok in his body.
According to research by SPIEGEL, Bellingcat and other partners, at least eight agents from the Russian secret service FSB were apparently involved in the poison attack on Navalny;
the Kremlin denies any responsibility.
The EU and the US have imposed further sanctions on Russia over the Navalny case.
Murachowski had only certified Navalny with a metabolic disorder at the time.
Navalny accused him of "falsifying" the diagnosis.
Murachowski was also accused of delaying Navalny's move to Germany.
Last November, the doctor was promoted to Minister of Health of the Siberian Region.
If his death is determined, it would be the second death of a medical doctor who was entrusted with the Navalny case.
In February, the deputy chief physician of the Omsk Clinic, Sergei Maximischin, died unexpectedly at the age of 55.
Navalny was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on January 17, immediately after his return from Germany, and shortly thereafter sentenced to several years in a prison camp in a controversial court case.
He is said to have violated probation requirements in previous criminal proceedings - before, but also while he was recovering from the nerve agent attack in Germany.
ssu / dpa
