Sergey Maximishin, the doctor who treated Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny when he was poisoned last year suddenly died on Thursday at the age of 55, according to the hospital where he worked.
“With regret, we inform you that … the deputy chief physician for anesthesiology and resuscitation of the emergency hospital №1, assistant of the department of Omsk State Medical University, PhD of medical sciences Maximishin Sergey Valentinovich suddenly passed away,” the hospital said in a statement reported by CNN.
The hospital did not mention a cause of death but, a spokeswoman from Omsk’s regional health ministry told CNN that he died of a heart attack citing “preliminary data.”
Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov, said “it’s not uncommon for doctors of his age to suddenly die” given the state of the country’s healthcare system. But he’s not ruling out foul play.
“(Maximishin) knew more than anyone else about Alexey’s condition so I can’t dismiss possibility of foul play,” he said.
CNN reported that it has no evidence that any foul play was involved.
Maximishin, was one of the senior doctors at the hospital where Navalny was initially admitted after he was poisoned with military grade Novichok last year. He was put into a medically induced coma and evacuated to Berlin, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning.
He was arrested when he returned to Russia and was sentence to 2 1/2 years in prison this week for violating the probation terms of a 2014 sentence.