The doctor who treated Alexei Navalny last year after the Russian opposition leader was poisoned died suddenly, the hospital where he worked announced on Thursday.
Sergey Maximishin was deputy chief physician at the Omsk emergency hospital who treated Navalny immediately after the poison attack blamed by the opposition leader on the Russian government. Maximishin died “suddenly” at the age of 55, the hospital said.
“We are sorry to inform you that … the Deputy Chief Physician for Anesthesia and Resuscitation of the Emergency Hospital №1, Assistant to the Department of Omsk State Medical University, PhD in Medical Sciences Maximishin Sergey Valentinovich passed away suddenly,” the hospital passed away in a statement said reported by CNN.
The cause of death was not mentioned in the hospital statement, although a spokesman for Omsk’s local health ministry later told CNN that Maximishin had died of a heart attack, citing ‘preliminary data’.
Maximishin was in charge of treating Navalny after being poisoned. Navalny was placed in a coma before being moved to Berlin for further treatment.
A top assistant at Navalny noted that it is “not uncommon for doctors his age to die suddenly.”
“[Maximishin] Leonid Volkov, chief of staff of Navalny, told CNN. “But the Russian health care system is very weak and it is not uncommon for doctors of his age to die suddenly. I doubt there will be any investigation into his death.”
CNN noted that there was no evidence that foul play was involved.
Navalny was sentenced on Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in prison after being accused of violating his 2014 parole requirements of a sentence. Navalny claims the charges against him are not legal.
Russia has denied all allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.