The German government considers “quite probable” that the Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, hospitalized in a coma in Berlin, was the victim of poisoning, declared Monday its spokesman.
• Read also: Alexeï Navalny poisoned on Putin’s orders?
• Read also: Russian opponent Navalny hospitalized in “stable” condition in Berlin
“This is a patient who quite likely was the victim of a poison attack,” Steffen Seibert told reporters, justifying in these circumstances the police protection offered at the Berlin hospital to M Navalny.
“The suspicion is not that Mr. Navalny has poisoned himself, but that someone has poisoned Mr. Navalny and the German government takes this suspicion very seriously”, argued the spokesperson of the German government.
- LISTEN to Normand Lester’s column on this subject on QUB radio:
“There was no formal invitation (from the German government), but, for humanitarian reasons, Mr. Navalny was able to enter the country quickly at the request of his family,” Seibert said.
Main opponent of the Kremlin, whose publications denouncing the corruption of Russian elites are widely shared on social networks, Alexeï Navalny, 44, was hospitalized Thursday in Omsk, in a coma, placed in intensive care and connected to an artificial ventilator, after being unwell on an airplane.
His relatives ensure that it is an “intentional poisoning”.
He was then evacuated Saturday morning to Berlin in a private jet chartered by a German NGO, at the end of a day of tug-of-war between Mr. Navalny’s family and Russian doctors, who initially claimed that his condition was too unstable, before giving the green light.
The opponent is currently being treated at the Charité hospital, one of the most famous in Europe.