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Poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny medical records 'tampered with'

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Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is currently serving jail time in Russia.
Camera IconOpposition leader Alexei Navalny is currently serving jail time in Russia. Credit: AP

Supporters of leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny have accused the hospital where he was briefly treated after a poison attack last year of falsifying medical records.

In a video released on Thursday, they accused the hospital in Omsk, Siberia, of trying to cover up evidence of poisoning.

According to the video, two employees of Navalny’s recently banned anti-corruption foundation managed to get into the hospital’s archives without permission last November.

There they photographed numerous test results.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin
Camera IconRussian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: AP

The group allege that when the hospital handed over the official health records to Navalny’s relatives a month later, “key documents” appeared to be missing.

They say a blood test showing a conspicuously low cholinesterase value - an enzyme found in the nervous system - was absent.

The opposition politician, currently serving time in a prison camp, was taken to the Omsk hospital last August after collapsing on a domestic flight.

Later, the now 45-year-old was flown to Germany and treated at the Charite hospital in Berlin.

According to tests by several laboratories, he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok; the Omsk clinic, however, only certified a metabolic disorder.

Russian authorities say that they have not been able to substantiate that he was poisoned and are not investigating the matter any further.

The European Union and the United States have repeatedly called on Russia to investigate the crime and have imposed sanctions on the country.

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