The Siberian hospital treating Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny said it cannot authorize him to be transported due to “worry” over his clinical state, amid claims by his team that the delay is to mask the presence of a “deadly substance.”
When asked why moving Navalny might be dangerous, Chief Physician of Omsk Hospital Alexander Murakhovsky said Friday “anything could happen, even the saddest thing is possible.” Navalny’s team claims that transport police in Omsk have detected a “deadly substance” that poses a threat to his life and the lives of those around him and say this is the reason why hospital authorities are not allowing him to be moved. The director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), Ivan Zhdanov, claimed that while in the hospital “a member of transport police came in and showed his phone [to the physician] saying, ‘this substance was found.'” Zhdanov claimed the head physician replied: “Well, okay it was found [so what?]. I have no information other than that.” Zhdanov said he asked the police officer what the substance was and claims he was told: “It’s a secret of the investigation, we can’t tell you but it’s a deadly substance.
