Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny airlifted to Germany

A plane carrying a Russian dissident in a coma after a suspected poisoning left for a German hospital on Saturday after prolonged wrangling over Alexei Navalny’s condition and treatment. The plane could be seen taking off from an airport in the Siberian city of Omsk just after 8am local time. Mr Navalny, a 44-year-old politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, was admitted to an intensive care unit in Omsk on Thursday. His supporters believe tea he drank was laced with poison — and that the Kremlin is behind both his illness and the delay in transferring him to a top German hospital.