Western leaders have raised “concerns” about the suspected poisoning of leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and offered medical help, but mostly avoided direct attacks on Russia as the activist fought for his life in a Siberian hospital.
The most muted response came from the US president, Donald Trump, who barely acknowledged the sudden collapse of Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, confirming only that his administration was looking into the events.
The UK foreign minister, Dominic Raab, said he was “deeply concerned” by reports Navalny had been poisoned mid-flight, and his thoughts were with the family.
The president of the European council, Charles Michel, directly expressed his concerns to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, in a call. And European allies offered practical help, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, promising asylum and medical aid if needed.
Germany’s Angela Merkel perhaps came closest to demanding accountability, asking for clarity on the circumstances behind Navalny’s collapse and also offering medical and other assistance.
A medivac plane flown by a charity has reached the city of Omsk, and is on standby to fly Navalny to Berlin, for treatment, but doctors appeared reluctant to release him.
Some western governments may have held back from stronger comment because they were focused on getting him flown out of Russia for treatment, said Mark Galeotti, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank.
“It’s a question of making the necessary statements to ensure that the Kremlin is aware that we’re watching this and concerned. But not going overboard on it because at the moment, in effect, Navalny is a hostage,” he said.
Opposition figures in Russia are often wary of being too closely associated with western governments, as government critics are frequently attacked as allies or proxies of other states.
Galeotti described Merkel as a “fairly experienced Russia hand” who was “not pushing too much because she wants to see Navalny on that plane”.
It was likely that calculation would change radically if Navalny died, or if permission to fly to Berlin was categorically denied, Galeotti said.
A Kremlin spokesman had previously said he would provide assistance in evacuating Navalny if asked directly, and the politician’s wife has since appealed to Putin to let him leave.
Navalny’s dramatic collapse immediately fuelled suspicion of foul play. He fell ill in the middle of a flight to Moscow, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing as he screamed in agony, and leaving him stranded in the Siberian city of Omsk.
Allies said they believed he drank tea laced with poison. But at Omsk’s emergency hospital No 1 the head doctor, Alexander Murakhovsky, said Navalny had not been poisoned but had been diagnosed with a metabolic disease caused by low blood sugar.
Moscow has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks, often with poison, including two in the UK.
Russian agents used a highly radioactive substance in central London to kill former spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006; then in 2018 another former spy was targeted with a nerve agent in Salisbury, although Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived.
Support for Navalny also came from activists fighting for democracy in neighbouring Belarus. Veronika Tsepkalo, who fled Belarus after receiving government threats of arrest, said it was an unacceptable situation.
“I was really upset when I read it because he’s one of the opposition leaders in Russia,” she told Reuters. “This should not be the case in a modern country.”
