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Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny shifted to Berlin hospital; condition stable, says doctor

WION Web Team
BerlinUpdated: Aug 22, 2020, 08:31 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Navalny, 44, had slipped into coma after falling ill on a plane which took off from Tomsk in Siberia and had to make an emergency landing in Omsk.

Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny who has been suffering from suspected poisoning was flown from  Russia to Berlin in an air ambulance as doctors said his condition was "stable".

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Navalny was shifted from Berlin's Tegel airport to Berlin's Charite hospital on Friday morning after Chancellor Angela Merkel had earlier extended an offer of treatment. Navalny, 44, had slipped into coma after falling ill on a plane which took off from Tomsk in Siberia and had to make an emergency landing in Omsk.

Navalny reportedly had a cup of tea at the airport which his aides said was mixed with poison as they sought to blame Putin's regime for his state. However, the  Omsk regional health ministry said "no convulsive or synthetic poisons was detected. 

After the plane left for Germany, Navalny's wife Yulia thanked supporters for their "persistence" after Russian doctors had earlier said the Opposition leader was too unstable to be moved. "Without your support, we wouldn't have been able to take him!" she said on Instagram.

Navalny's wife had earlier appealed directly to Putin to allow her husband to leave. Navalny wife had said she wanted "an independent hospital, whose doctors we trust".