"The preliminary test results from the Charite – Universitatsmedizin hospital in Berlin indicate that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned during his stay in Siberia. … It is imperative that the Russian authorities initiate an independent and transparent investigation on the poisoning of Mr Navalny without delay," Borrell said on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, the doctors treating Navalny in the Berlin-based Charite hospital claimed they had found traces of intoxication with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors in his body.
Omsk Chief Toxicologist Alexander Sabayev said on Monday that upon his admission to the Omsk hospital, Navalny was tested on a wide range of narcotics, synthetic substances, psychodiletics and medicinal substances, including cholinesterase inhibitors, but all tests came back negative. According to Sabayev, Navalny did not have any symptoms specific to the poisoning with cholinesterase inhibitors.
Last Thursday, Navalny suffered an acute health condition and went into a coma during a domestic Russian flight. Following an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, he was hospitalized with suspected poisoning as one of the possible reasons behind his condition. Russian doctors subsequently found no poison traces in his samples and opined that the deterioration was caused by an abrupt drop of glucose in Navalny’s blood due to a metabolic disbalance.
On Saturday, Navalny was flown to Berlin for further treatment. According to a statement from Aleksandr Murakhovsky, the lead doctor of the Omsk hospital, German doctors said in a letter that Navalny's condition remained steadily grave and thanked the Russian colleagues for saving his life.
