Doctors say they’re entertaining ‘five provisional diagnoses’ to explain Alexey Navalny’s mysterious coma, but they’re all a secret

Alexander Murakhovsky, the chief physician at the hospital in Omsk where Alexey Navalny is now fighting for his life, announced on Friday that doctors are reviewing five provisional diagnoses to explain the opposition politician’s apparent poisoning. 

At a press conference with journalists, Murakhovsky said: “To date, we have five provisional diagnoses. Unfortunately, I can’t name them at this time… But I can say that they are all provisional and we are working on them. Emergency room doctors, neurologists, neurophysiologists — everyone is working on this. We’ve brought in all kinds of related specialists and we’re all fighting for our patient’s life.”

The chief physician reported at 8 a.m., Omsk time, that Navalny’s condition improved overnight, but doctors haven’t yet managed to stabilize his vitals satisfactorily.

Early on August 21, doctors at the Omsk hospital held a consultation with specialists in Moscow from the Burdenko Neurosurgery Center and Pirogov National Medical Surgical Center. The physicians determined that it is premature to transfer Navalny to another hospital, though the politician’s aides and family demand that he be allowed to board an air ambulance already waiting in Omsk to take him to Berlin.

“We must stabilize the patient completely,” said Murakhovsky. “Only then can we discuss the possibility of moving him wherever his relatives would like, in accordance with all entities involved.”

On the morning of August 21, Alexey Navalny’s aides announced that doctors prohibited his medical evacuation after declaring his condition unstable and “unevacuable.” This decision was made shortly before an air ambulance landed in Omsk, which planned to fly Navalny to a top clinic in Berlin.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, says she believes the doctors in Omsk are trying to prevent independent specialists from discovering the substance supposedly used to poison her husband. Aides say a police officer at the hospital claimed that a dangerous agent was discovered in Navalny’s body that threatens both his life and the lives of everyone around him. Officially, local law enforcement denies these reports and maintains that Navalny’s test results are still being processed.