A senior doctor who treated Alexei Navalny before he was airlifted to Germany has “suddenly” died, the hospital announced.
Sergey Maximishin, 55, was the deputy chief physician for anesthesiology and resuscitation at the Omsk emergency hospital, a Thursday statement from the hospital said. A spokeswoman for the hospital told CNN that it appeared Maximishin died from a heart attack, according to “preliminary data.”
“With regret, we inform you that … the deputy chief physician for anesthesiology and resuscitation of the emergency hospital No. 1, assistant of the department of Omsk State Medical University, PhD of medical sciences Maximishin Sergey Valentinovich suddenly passed away,” the statement read.
Navalny, an opposition leader and vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is believed to have been poisoned by Russian operatives using Novichok-class nerve agent. The 44-year-old activist collapsed on a flight after drinking tea in Siberia. The pilot made an emergency landing in the city of Omsk, and he was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Doctors at the hospital where Maximishin worked said they found no evidence that he was poisoned and initially held him there, refusing to let him be airlifted to Germany for treatment. After they eventually relented, Navalny was taken to Berlin, where authorities there confirmed he was poisoned with the deadly Soviet nerve agent. The Kremlin denies any role in the poisoning.
Navalny spent days in a medically induced coma before regaining consciousness, and it took months of hospitalization for him to recover from the apparent attack. When he returned to Russia, Navalny was arrested and jailed immediately upon his arrival. Protests calling for his release erupted across the country, to no avail, as the 44-year-old activist was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on Tuesday for failing to meet parole conditions of a sentence he received years ago.
Navalny, who is involved in a separate criminal case, appeared in court on Friday after being charged under a Russian libel law. The government accused him of defaming a World War II veteran when he commented about a Russian propaganda video on social media last June. Navalny denounced that libel charge, saying it was politically motivated.
“Cases are always fabricated against me, but the authorities have problems when cases go to court,” Navalny told the court. “It is clear to everyone there that the truth is on my side.”
