ICU officials refuse to admit Navalny’s own wife, demanding to see their marriage certificate

Update: According to Irina Kvasko from the Doctors’ Alliance, Navalny’s wife Yulia has been allowed in to see him.

Officials at the intensive care unit in Omsk where opposition politician Alexey Navalny is now fighting for his life have refused to admit his wife, Yulia, or his personal physician, Anastasia Vasileva, both of whom rushed to the hospital from Moscow. 

According to Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, doctors initially told Yulia Navalnaya that she couldn’t be admitted because her (unconscious) husband hadn’t consented to visitation. Later, officials apparently claimed that her passport was insufficient proof of her relationship to Navalny and demanded to see their marriage certificate. 

Anastasia Vasileva says the hospital has also refused to provide her with any medical documents about Navalny’s condition. “We are appealing to the Health Ministry and other state officials for help obtaining his records and determining his treatment and the need to transfer him to Moscow or abroad,” she tweeted.

Meanwhile, Anatoly Kalinichenko (the deputy chief doctor at Navalny’s ICU) says, “All available and necessary specialists are available and he is receiving full-time assistance. The facility has everything necessary and no external help is required.”

Officials from the Omsk Health Department later said that Navalny’s wife and “other representatives” had bee granted an audience with Alexander Murakhovsky, the head physician of the hospital where the opposition politician is now being treated.

Alexey Navalny was hospitalized after falling violently ill aboard a plane from Tomsk to Moscow. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk after Navalny passed out. He was subsequently moved to an intensive care unit and connected to a ventilator. He is currently in a coma, according to the local Health Department.

Navalny’s spokeswoman says he drank a cup of tea at the airport in Tomsk before boarding the plane. She suspects the beverage was poisoned. At the time of this writing, doctors have not yet announced their diagnosis of what caused Navalny’s sudden illness.