Activists are trying to bring Alexei Navalny to Berlin for treatment, the head of a German NGO said Thursday as the Russian opposition figure was fighting for his life in a Siberian hospital after a suspected poisoning. "For humanitarian reasons... we have organised a plane with medical equipment that can bring Navalny to Germany," Jaka Bizilj, who heads the Cinema For Peace foundation, told the Bild newspaper, adding that he was awaiting approval from German authorities. The organisation has a history of supporting Russian opposition members and arranged a medical evacuation in 2018 for a member of the Pussy Riot punk band, Pyotr Verzilov, after he too fell ill from a suspected poisoning. Bizilj told German news agency DPA that Berlin's renowned Charite hospital had agreed to treat Navalny and that the request for the transfer had come to him from Navalny's family. "We are in contact with the authorities and hope to receive a permit for the transport" as soon as possible, Bizilj told Bild. Navalny, a 44-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner who is among President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, was hospitalised in the city of Omsk after he lost consciousness during a flight and his plane made an emergency landing. Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said he was on a ventilator in a coma and his condition was serious but stable. His team said the hospital was ill-equipped and his doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva said she had asked for the Kremlin's help to transfer him to a European clinic. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov wished Navalny a "speedy recovery" adding that the Kremlin would help move him abroad if needed. Berlin's Charite hospital also treated Verzilov two years ago. He was discharged about 10 days later after his condition improved significantly. mfp/fec/pvh