Germany maintains contact with Russia in connection with the situation around opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who is currently in intensive care in a Siberian hospital, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman said on Friday
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st August, 2020) Germany maintains contact with Russia in connection with the situation around opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who is currently in intensive care in a Siberian hospital, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman said on Friday.
Navalny felt sick on a flight from the city of Tomsk to Moscow on Thursday. As a result, the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was hospitalized. His spokesperson suggested that he may have been poisoned. The Omsk hospital chief doctor said on Friday that there were no traces of poison in Navalny's blood or urine. Doctors consider a metabolic dysfunction and a plunge in sugar level to be the main working diagnosis.
"The German authorities are already in contact with their Russian counterparts, so that we are able to contribute to finding a transparent and professional solution to this humanitarian emergency," Maria Adebahr said at a briefing.
As for a medical jet that has recently arrived from Nuremberg to Omsk, the diplomat called it "a private initiative," noting that the German government is aware of this.
Cabinet spokesman Steffen Seibert, in turn, reiterated that Germany is ready to help Navalny if his relatives express such a wish.
When asked whether Chancellor Angela Merkel had called President Vladimir Putin to talk about Navalny, Seibert replied in the negative. When asked whether such a call could take place, Seibert noted that the cabinet does not disclose phone conversations beforehand.
Commenting on Berlin's attitude to Navalny, he noted that Germany is "constantly talking not only about Navalny, but also about other representatives of the Russian opposition, representatives of civil society, and journalists, because we closely monitor how the government treats such forces in Russia."
"Now he is in a Siberian hospital with severe symptoms, so our wishes, first of all, are his speedy recovery. The main thing is not how we evaluate individual political actions or stances, but the fact that an opposition politician ended up in a hospital with suspected poisoning, which, for logical reasons, we cannot assess from here. We want him to receive all possible medical care that can save him," Seibert explained.
Doctors believe that Navalny's condition does not allow him to be safely transported at the moment.
