Alexei Navalny, a prominent Russian opposition figure who fell critically ill on 17 August 2020, is being treated in Germany following an interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights.
The measure ordered that doctors be given access to Navalny and his medical records to assess his fitness for transport from Siberia to Germany. Following the interim measure, Russia gave permission for Navalny – who had allegedly been poisoned with a nerve agent – to be transported to Charité Hospital in Berlin on 22 August 2020, where he is currently being treated in intensive care.
ALEXEI NAVALNY
Navalny has been involved in Russian politics since 1999, once as a member of the liberal opposition party Yabloko and then as the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an organisation devoted to investigating Kremlin-backed figures and campaigning against United Russia, the country’s ruling party. He ran in the Moscow mayoral election in 2013, winning 27% of the vote from a United Russia candidate, and attempted to run for president in 2018 before being barred from standing. Navalny is famous for his vehement criticism of Putin and United Russia, famously calling it a party of “crooks and thieves,” and he has attracted large-scale public attention with his videos on the corruption of government figures, which have attracted up to 36 million views.
This criticism has led to Navalny being targeted often over the years. In 2014, he was convicted by a Russian court for embezzling from a state-owned company in a sentence that was declared unfair by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). He was also convicted for embezzling from Yves Rocher, a French cosmetics company, in a case also declared unfair by the ECtHR. He has been hospitalised both after having antiseptic green dye thrown at him in 2017 and after having an acute allergic reaction to an “unknown chemical substance” in 2019. In 2020, his bank accounts were frozen and his Anti-Corruption Foundation forced to close due to aggressive investigations by authorities.
ALLEGED POISONING
Navalny’s illness came during a visit to Siberia, where he was supporting candidates running in opposition to United Russia in local elections. Navalny started to feel ill on his flight from Tomsk to Moscow on 17 August 2020, and he was forced to make an emergency landing in the Siberian town of Omsk. His spokesperson Kira Yarmysh has stated that he may have been poisoned while drinking a cup of tea in the airport before the flight.
At the hospital in Omsk, Navalny was placed on a ventilator and put in a medically-induced coma, with doctors there claiming on 21 August 2020 that he was too ill to be transported. Despite this, Navalny was flown from Omsk to Berlin on 22 August 2020, following pressure by the international community, Navalny’s family, and supporters, as well as the interim measure of the ECtHR.
THE INTERIM MEASURE
Under Rule 39 of the ECtHR’s Rules of the Court, interim measures set out urgent steps that states should take. They are generally used only where there is an “imminent risk of irreparable harm” to individuals if a measure is not issued. Following the judgment in Mamatkulov and Askarov v Turkey, states are obliged to comply with interim measures in order to abide by article 34 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
On 21 August 2020, a representative of Navalny requested an interim measure from the ECtHR, which was granted on the same day. The measures stated that, by noon on 22 August 2020, Navalny’s wife must be given access to his medical file from Omsk hospital and doctors appointed by his wife must be allowed access to examine his fitness for transfer to Germany. Russia was obligated to inform the court of Navalny’s condition and of any medical treatment he had received. The measure also stipulated that, by 2PM French time on 24 August 2020, the court should be given a report from both parties on Navalny’s fitness for transfer as well as a copy of his medical file from Russia.
The Kremlin broadly complied with – and even exceeded – the terms of the interim measure, agreeing not just to allow access to Navalny by the 22 August 2020 deadline but to allow his transportation to Berlin on that day. Because of his transportation, the ECtHR lifted the interim measure on the 24 August 2020.
Since being transferred to Berlin Navalny’s condition has improved, but he remains on a ventilator in intensive care. Russia has ruled out an investigation into Navalny’s illness, and in its absence the ECtHR could become involved in his case again as the situation progresses. Navalny has a history of using the court as source of protection against his state – fighting his embezzlement convictions, fighting repeated arrests by Russian authorities, and fighting “invasive” criminal investigations against his Anti-Corruption Foundation – and so the European Court of Human Rights could well provide a stage for Navalny to fight his treatment by Russia as he fights for his life.
Alice is currently studying the GDL at City, University of London and holds a BA in Classics from the University of Oxford. She is passionate about human rights, with a particular interest in refugee and migration issues.