Gravely ill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny touched down in Berlin early Saturday after a protracted decision on whether he should be evacuated to Germany for medical treatment from a hospital in Siberia.
The fierce opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin was taken to the Charite Hospital in Berlin, a spokesman for Cinema for Peace, the German non-profit which is facilitating his care, told NBC News in a statement. The organization arranged for a German medical team to travel to Siberia and provided the air ambulance for Navalny to travel from Russia.
Navalny, who remains in a coma, fell ill on a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk on Thursday and was taken to a hospital after the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, another city in the region.
The 44-year-old lawyer’s supporters have claimed that he drunk tea laced with poison before boarding the flight.
But Russian doctors said Friday they found no evidence of poisoning. Instead they diagnosed him with a metabolic disease caused by low blood sugar, but said they found traces of industrial chemical substances on his clothes and fingers
German doctors flew into Omsk on Friday with the air ambulance at the request of his wife and supporters, who also said the hospital treating him was badly equipped.
But their plan to evacuate Navalny was initially denied by doctors at the hospital where he was being treated. They said he was too unstable to move.
Navalny’s supporters denounced this as a ploy by authorities to allow any poison to leave his system and stop it being traceable, or to stall his treatment.
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After 24 hours of wrangling and a personal petition to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin from Navalny’s wife Yulia, the Russian medical team relented and agreed to let Navalny travel to Berlin after the German medical team said he was fit to fly.
Cinema for Peace said Navalny’s family would issue an update on his condition in the next few days.
He will now be treated at Berlin’s Charite hospital — Europe’s largest university teaching hospital.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, said Yulia was also on board the evacuation plane.
“The struggle for Alexei’s life and health is just beginning, and there is still a lot to go through, but now at least the first step has been taken,” Yarmysh tweeted, shortly after they touched down.
The Kremlin denied that resistance to the transfer was political, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that it was purely a medical decision. However, the reversal came as international pressure on Russia’s leadership mounted.
On Thursday, leaders of France and Germany said the two countries were ready to offer Navalny and his family assistance and called for an investigation into what happened.
Lawyer Navalny, 44, has been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level graft and mobilizing crowds of young protesters.
The most prominent member of Russia’s opposition, he campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election but was barred from running. Since then, he has been promoting opposition candidates in regional elections, challenging members of the ruling party.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Matthew Bodner and Andy Eckardt contributed.
