Investigators with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Siberian Federal District Transport Police have established where Alexei Navalny stayed and what he ate before his August 20 flight, with the information released as part of an ongoing pre-investigation probe.
Police were able to establish the complete chronology of Navalny and his party’s movements in the city of Tomsk and the surrounding region, including the route of their travels, where they stayed, and places they visited.
“Among them is the Xander Hotel [in Central Tomsk] and Velvet Restaurant [situated directly beside the hotel], a rented apartment where a working meeting of Navalny’s supporters took place, and the Vienna Coffee House at Tomsk’s airport,” the Ministry said in a press statement Friday.
“According to the information obtained, it was at these locations that Alexei Anatolievich Navalny consumed food and drinks, including wine and an alcohol cocktail,” police added.
The Ministry specified that five out of six persons who had accompanied Navalny during his trip had been interviewed, with only one, British permanent resident Marina Pevhikh, refusing. According to the Ministry’s information, Pevhikh left Russia for Germany on August 22. “Her current location is being established,” police said.
Investigators are said to be analyzing the information received, and studying expert opinions and other materials. Separate measures have been taken to establish the whereabouts of passengers who flew with Navalny on August 20, and to find out the identity of his personal doctor in Moscow.
Navalny was hospitalized in Omsk, Siberia on August 22 after falling ill during Moscow-bound flight from Tomsk. The doctors who saved his life concluded that he may have suffered a catastrophic drop in blood sugar levels due to a preexisting metabolic disorder. He was transferred to a clinic in Berlin on August 22. Last week, a German military lab analysis alleged that Navalny had been ‘poisoned’ by the so-called ‘Novichok’ group of nerve agents. However, blood and urine samples analysed by Russian doctors before his transfer out of the country showed no evidence of any poisons. Russian officials have denied Berlin’s ‘poisoning’ allegations, and accused Berlin of making ‘loud statements’ without providing any corroborating evidence to the Russian side.
