Yahoo TV

Aleksandr Murakhovsky, the head doctor at the Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1, said on Friday, August 21, that the hospital “could not permit [Alexei Navalny’s transportation]” from the country.

“If the patient’s condition was stable, then my specialists and the medical consultations… we would not have objected,” said Murakhovsky. “But today, transportation is premature.”

Murakhovksy statement comes amid claims from Navalny’s family and staff that he had been poisoned. Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), said a police officer told him a poison had been found on Navalny’s body that was dangerous not only to him but to others around him.

Authorities dispute these claims, with Murakhovsky saying Navalny’s condition could be a “metabolic disorder…caused by a sudden drop of blood sugar levels.” Reuters also quoted Murakhovsky as saying traces of industrial chemical substances had been found on his clothes and fingers.

Russian state-owned media Tass reported a doctor in the hospital as saying that no toxins had been found in Navalny’s body.

“No poisons or traces of poison have been found in his system,” Anatoly Kalinichenko said, according to Tass. “I suppose the diagnosis ‘poisoning’ is still at the back of our minds, but we do not think that the patient has been poisoned."

The cause of Navalny’s illness has yet to be officially confirmed. Credit: RFE/RL via Storyful