The German NGO behind Alexei Navalny’s rescue

August 23, 2020

Russian dissident politician Alexei Navalny was flown from Omsk to Berlin for medical treatment on Saturday aboard a plane arranged by the Cinema for Peace Foundation.

The 44-year-old was in a coma after a suspected poisoning, although Russian doctors put his illness down to a possible blood sugar disorder.

The founder of the NGO behind his evacuation, Jaka Bizilj, said private donations had paid for the flight — a Bombardier Challenger chartered by a Nuremburg-based firm — as well as for the medical staff on board.

Read more: Alexei Navalny: A Russian dissident battles Kremlin, Putin

‘Very expensive’ at short notice

Bizilj told DW that plans for the evacuation were set in motion on Thursday after members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot Nadya Tolokonnikova and Pyotr Verzilov appealed to the NGO for help.

“I got a call from Nadia Tolokonnikova from Los Angeles, from Pussy Riot, and from Pyotr from Moscow, asking me if we could help a dear friend, Alexei, who’d got poisoned too,” Bizilj told DW in an interview. The foundation had flown Verzilov himself to Berlin in 2018 after he was poisoned and fell ill.

Dizilj stressed that although the governments of Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron had been briefed, Navalny’s airlift to Berlin had been a “private” activity.

“It was very expensive to do it in at very short notice, but in the end, during the process, without having to think much about it, private persons came forward and took over [costs],” he said, adding that the charter flight would not burden taxpayers.

Jaka Bizij

Film producer and concert promoter Jaka Bizij

Star power

Born in Slovenia in 1971, Dizilj is a film and show producer with a list of connections that reads like a who’s who of Hollywood and world diplomacy — including names like Mikhail Gorbachev, Sharon Stone and Ai Weiwei.

He launched the Cinema for Peace Foundation in 2002 to “influence through films the perception and resolution of global social, political, and humanitarian challenges of our time — and especially to oppose war and terror,” according to the organization’s website.

Its Genocide Film Library includes material on the 1992-95 Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict. The NGO also runs screenings for schools and students, including films such as South Africa’s “Themba — a Boy Called Hope,” about a football novice who loses his mother to HIV/AIDS.

Since its founding, the NGO has held an annual fundraising and awards gala to coincide with the Berlin Film Festival. The event often draws Hollywood stars and prominent political figures — last year actor Charlize Theron and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder were among the guests.

Guests at the Cinema for Peace gala draped in gold rescue blankets

In 2016, Ai Weiwei draped guests in gold rescue blankets to highlight the horrors of Mediterranean migrant drownings

‘Oscars with brain’

Rock star and rights activist Bob Geldof was once quoted as describing the foundation’s galas, which aim to showcase work dedicated to peace and justice, as an “Oscars with brain.”

But former Berlin Film Festival chief Dieter Kosslick wasn’t convinced. According to media in Berlin, he called the gala evenings “absurd events,” and also accused the organization of not being transparent with its funds.

Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper wrote in 2010 of the annual gala that “some 600 guests came, tickets cost upwards of €1,000. A law firm is scrutinizing the Cinema for Peace’s revenue. Up until last year it was almost €2.5 million.”

The foundation has been criticized for not publishing an annual report detailing its expenses and donations on its website. Bizilj has repeatedly pledged that external auditors would monitor the legal use of donations received.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Ranked Germany’s top hospital

Berlin Charite was established in 1710 as a center for plague patients and 100 years later it grew to house a medical university. From then on, its campus has handled patients as well as research students. More than half of Germany’s Nobel Prize winners for medicine or physiology worked at the hospital.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Reputation damaged during Nazi era

During the Nazi regime, many physicians from Charite were involved in ethical crimes related to medicine. The Charite hospital was also responsible for autopsies on Jewish suicide victims and the executed resistance fighters of July 20th. After the war, the hospital fell under the jurisdiction of the German Democratic Republic, as it was located in East Berlin.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Temporary Ebola hub

Berlin Charite became a European care hub during the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa in 2015. A South Korean medic, who was working in Sierra Leone and became infected with the virus, was flown to Berlin for treatment. The patient was sent to Berlin at the request of the South Korean government, which said his anonymity would be better kept there.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Lead role in coronavirus crisis

Charite was the first hospital to detect a locally transmitted coronavirus infection in Germany, back in March. Since then, it has gained prominence as Christian Drosten, director of Charite’s Institute of Virology, has played a public role in policy during the COVID-19 health crisis and been a scientific voice during the pandemic, through his many public appearances and weekly podcast.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Notable politician patients

The hospital has attracted international attention by offering support to prominent international politicians. In March 2014, Ukrainian opposition politician and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko was treated at Charite. She suffered a total of three slipped discs, which she had acquired during her two and a half years imprisonment.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Poisoned Russian activist

In 2018, Pyotr Verzilov, an associate of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot and staunch Vladimir Putin critic was flown from Moscow to Berlin, after showing symptoms of poisoning. Charité head doctor Kai-Uwe Eckardt treated the activist. Verzilov’s case is said to have set the precedent for Alexei Navalny’s supporters to consider Berlin for his treatment.

Berlin Charite: The storied history of the hospital treating Alexei Navalny

Navalny the latest high-profile patient

Vladimir Putin critic and prominent Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was flown to Charite Berlin from a hospital in Omsk, Russia, to be treated for suspected poisoning. The activist traveled on a chartered flight paid for by the NGO Cinema for Peace. Chancellor Angela Merkel was among those who pushed for a speedy transfer for Navalny to Germany.

Author: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez