The Berlin hospital treating the seriously ill Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, says he appears to have been poisoned.
Navalny is being treated at the Charite hospital in Berlin. Photo: AFP
The Charité hospital released a statement saying "clinical evidence suggests an intoxication through a substance belonging to the group of cholinesterase inhibitors".
But doctors who treated him in Russia say the substance was not present.
Navalny fell ill on an internal flight in Russia on Thursday.
Video appeared to show Navalny, a dogged critic of the Kremlin, writhing in agony on the flight from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow.
His supporters suspect poison was placed in a cup of tea he drank at the airport in Tomsk.
Navalny's flight made an emergency landing in Omsk where he was first treated.
In their latest statement released after that of the German medical team, the Omsk doctors say tests showed no sign of cholinesterase inhibitors in his body. Speaking last week, the same team suggested his illness was caused by a metabolic disorder triggered by low blood sugar.
On Friday, they at first said he was too ill to be moved but then allowed him to board a medical evacuation flight, which landed in Berlin on Saturday morning.
What did doctors in Germany say?
His condition was "serious but not life-threatening" the statement said.
"The exact substance is not yet known," the hospital said. "Widespread analysis has begun. The effect of the poison - i.e. the inhibition of cholinesterase in the organism - has been proven several times and in independent laboratories."
The clinical outcome remained unclear, the statement said, and the medical team warned of possible effects on the nervous system.
Navalny and his wife Yulia at a rally in moscow last year. Navalny's wife Yulia has been at his bedside at the Charité hospital. Photo: AFP
The opposition leader is in intensive care and is still in an artificial coma.
Navalny is being given an antidote, atropine, the same drug used in the case of ex-KGB agent Sergei Skripal by UK doctors after his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.
Cholinesterase inhibitors are chemical compounds used to treat several diseases, such as Alzheimer's, but are also present in some nerve agents and pesticides.
Adverse effects can include overstimulation of part of the nervous system causing some bodily functions to go into overdrive, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information in the US.
What have Navalny's supporters said?
They have been blaming the Kremlin.
Doctors in Omsk had at first been co-operative in helping to transfer Navalny abroad for treatment, they said, but had then backtracked before he was finally allowed to leave.
His wife, Yulia, said she feared the Russian authorities were trying to wait for evidence of any chemical substance to disappear before sending him abroad.
But President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday that the Kremlin would help move Navalny abroad if necessary, describing it as a purely medical decision.
Alexander Murakhovsky, the chief doctor at the Omsk hospital said: "There was no influence on the treatment of the patient a priori, and there couldn't have been any."
Navalny, 44, is a prominent critic of Putin and has exposed official corruption in Russia. He has served multiple jail terms for organising rallies.
The NGO which arranged his flight to Berlin, the Cinema for Peace, said Navalny would probably be out of action for one or two months.
German police stand guard outside Berlin's Charite hospital where Alexei Navalny is treated after his medical evacuation to Germany. Photo: AFP
What is being said outside Russia?
In her latest comments, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for those behind any poisoning to be identified and held accountable.
The UK called on Saturday for a "full and transparent" investigation.
And US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden vowed over the weekend that, if elected, he would "stand up to autocrats like Putin".
Timeline: Navalny targeted
April 2017: He was taken to hospital after an antiseptic green dye was splashed on his face in Moscow. It was the second time he was targeted with zelyonka ("brilliant green" in English) that year. "It looks funny but it hurts like hell," he tweeted following the attack.
July 2019: He was sentenced to 30 days in prison after calling for unauthorised protests. He fell ill in jail and doctors said he had suffered an acute allergic reaction, diagnosing him with "contact dermatitis". His own doctor suggested he might have been exposed to "some toxic agent" and Navalny said he thought he might have been poisoned.
December 2019: Russian security forces raided the offices of his Anti-Corruption Foundation, taking laptops and other equipment. CCTV footage showed officials using power tools to get through the door. Earlier that year, his organisation was declared a "foreign agent".
- BBC
