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Airline affirms Navalny did not eat or drink anything on board Moscow-bound flight

Earlier on Thursday, the plane carrying the opposition politician made an emergency landing after he suddenly felt under the weather in mid-flight

© Piotr Kovalev/TASS

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russian blogger Alexei Navalny who was rushed to a hospital in Omsk on Thursday morning did not eat or drink anything during his Tomsk-to-Moscow flight, a spokesperson for S7 Airlines told TASS.

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"The health condition of one of the passengers, Alexei Navalny, deteriorated dramatically soon after S7 Airlines flight 2614 took off from Tomsk bound for Moscow. <…> Alexei did not eat or drink anything aboard the plane," the spokesperson said.

According to the air carrier, the crew reacted quickly and "strictly in accordance with the established procedures." Flight attendants immediately reported the incident to the aircraft commander who landed the plane at the nearest airport. After refueling, the plane headed to Moscow. Two passengers who flew together with Navalny remained in Omsk.

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An inspection will be carried out in the Tomsk airport coffee shop where, according to his supporters, Alexei Navalny drank tea shortly before his health deteriorated, its director Pyotr Filonenko told TASS.

"Yes, the CCTV footage will be scrutinized. Now I am going to the coffee shop, and we will look into the matter," he promised.

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According to Filonenko, there were no complaints from other visitors, and there were no complaints from Navalny himself. He confirmed that specialists from Russia’s sanitary watchdog had come to inspect the coffee shop.

Earlier on Thursday, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said that the plane carrying the Russian blogger made an emergency landing in Omsk after he suddenly felt under the weather in mid-flight. According to Yarmysh, Navalny only drank tea in the morning. She claimed that the blogger may have been poisoned.

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