Medical tests on Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny have found no traces of poison, Russian doctors said on Friday. Navalny remains in a serious condition in a hospital in Siberia after his supporters say he was poisoned.
“Poisoning as a diagnosis remains on the back burner, but we don’t believe that the patient suffered from poisoning,” Deputy chief doctor Anatoly Kalinichenko at Omsk hospital told reporters on Friday.
Kalinichenko added that Navalny’s diagnosis had been determined and relayed to his family members, but the doctor refused to reveal it to reporters, citing patient confidentiality laws.
However Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, disputed this in a tweet and said his family had not been told his diagnosis.
The 44-year-old Navalny 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.
A prominent member of Russia’s opposition, Navalny campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election but was barred from running. He has frequently been detained by law enforcement and in 2017 was attacked by several men who threw antiseptic in his face, damaging his eye.