‘Purely a medical decision’: Anti-corruption activist Navalny won’t be allowed to fly until his doctor allows it, says Kremlin
There are no obstacles preventing Moscow protest leader Alexey Navalny from flying abroad for treatment other than receiving permission from his doctor, according to Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Navalny was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday morning, after becoming ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. Members of his team believe the activist has been poisoned, and have arranged to fly him to the European Union. His associates have appealed to the Kremlin to allow him to be evacuated to a German specialist hospital, but Moscow insists the decision to let him go must be made by doctors.
“This is purely a medical decision,” Peskov said. “There are no obstacles in this case, except for … the decision of the attending physician who is responsible for the patient’s care.” The presidential spokesman also clarified that doctors in Omsk are in “full contact” with German specialists, who have been invited to “take part in a consultation.”
On Friday afternoon, Navalny’s Twitter account published a letter from his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, with an official request to Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow him to be transported to Germany.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) August 21, 2020
Navalny is known in Russian as a protest leader and anti-corruption activist, and he has a large following on YouTube. His online exposés of corruption within Moscow’s elite circles have long ruffled the feathers of high-powered people in the capital. In 2013, he ran for mayor of Moscow, coming second, with 27.24 percent of the vote.
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