The Russian doctor who first treated dissident Alexei Navalny after the Kremlin critic's poisoning last year has reappeared out of the forest where he went missing after a Friday hunting party.
Alexander Murakhovsky, since appointed health minister of the Siberian region of Omsk, exited the woods near the city of Omsk under his own power and is not being treated medically, officials said on Monday, as reported by TASS.
He had not returned after heading out on a hunting trip on Friday, TASS had reported at the weekend, citing a police spokesperson. The disappearance had led to about 100 people being pulled together for a search party.
His condition is "normal."
Until a few months ago, Murakhovsky ran the Omsk clinic where Navalny, now jailed in a prison camp, was taken after he collapsed on a domestic flight last August.
Navalny was later flown out to Germany and treated for weeks at the Charite hospital in Berlin. According to tests by several laboratories, he was poisoned with the agent Novichok.
At the time, Murakhovsky did not diagnose a poisoning and said Navalny had fallen ill with a metabolic disorder.
Accused
Navalny accused him of falsifying the diagnosis, and his supporters accuse Murakhovsky of delaying Navalny's transfer to Germany at a critical time.
In November, the doctor was promoted to health minister of the Siberian region.
Russia says it has not been able to prove that Navalny was poisoned and is therefore not investigating the matter.
The European Union and the United States have repeatedly called on Russia to investigate the crime and have imposed sanctions on the country.
