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| Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni awaits a ruling at Moscow Simonovsky District Court on February 2, 2021. He was sentenced to three years and six months in prison because his probation was canceled that day. © Reuters = News1 © News1 Reporter Seoyoon Choi |
The doctor who was in charge of treating poison addiction for Alexei Navalni, the opposition leader who is considered to be the static opposition leader of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died suddenly.
According to CNN on the 4th (local time), Omsk Hospital in Russia announced in a statement that Dr. Maximisin Sergei Valentinovich, 55, had died suddenly. The cause of death was not disclosed.
“Dr. Maximisin is the person responsible for treating Navalni when he was in a coma,” said Leonid Volkov, Navalni’s chief aide. “Because he knows Navalni’s condition better than anyone else, the possibility of murder cannot be ignored.”
“The Russian medical system is very poor, but it is not common for a doctor of that age to die suddenly,” he said. “There seems to be no investigation into his death.”
Earlier, Navalni showed signs of poisoning on a Russian domestic flight in August last year.
The aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk, Russia, and he was transferred to Omsk Emergency Hospital for treatment.
At the time, Dr. Maximisin did not give a separate press briefing regarding Navalni’s condition.
After falling into a coma, Navalni was transferred to Berlin, Germany, where he recovered after receiving treatment for five months.
Although he returned to Russia on the 17th of last month, he was immediately arrested and detained, and anti-government protests are held every weekend in Russia demanding the release of Navalni.
Navalni claimed that the Putin government had attempted to kill him through poison, and that German, French and Swedish research institutes were also addicted to the nobichok developed during the Soviet period for military use, but the Russian government denies it.