As Alexei Navalny Remains in a Coma, Doctors Refuse to Transfer Him to Germany

MOSCOW—Fears are growing for the life of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, Alexei Navalny, as doctors refused to hand him over to a medical team waiting to take him for treatment in Germany after he fell into a coma, prompting suspicions that he had been poisoned.

Mr. Navalny was on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on Thursday when he suddenly fell ill, with the plane making an emergency landing in the city of Omsk. His supporters said he grew pale and began sweating profusely nearly an hour after drinking tea at the airport that they believe was laced with poison.

A team of German doctors arrived overnight to take Mr. Navalny, but the Russian team that had been preparing the paperwork to hand him over suddenly changed tack Friday, saying he was too unstable to move and his life was in jeopardy, his supporters said.

“Now at the last moment, the doctors won’t let him,” Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter. “They, of course, didn’t make the decision, but the Kremlin did.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of the specifics of the request to take Mr. Navalny abroad for treatment. “The issue is exclusively medical,” he said. “No one sees any obstacles apart from the medical decision of his doctor, who, according to law, is responsible for the health of his patient.”