The health of detained Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny is deteriorating, with new suspicions of poisoning, and he has returned to a punishment cell a few days after being held in regular detention, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Anna Veduta, who lives in Washington and is vice president of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, based in Navalny, told the Associated Press that the 46-year-old oppositionist fell ill last Friday as he left the punishment cell and in a conventional cell.
In the past 15 days, Navalny lost more than eight kilograms. On Monday he reported via Twitter that he had been put in a punishment cell again for 15 days.
3/11 At the same time I was restricted from buying food (we now have new rules), my daily walk is now at 7am (it’s important because if your walk is in the afternoon you might be lucky to stand inside for a while in a sunny spot), I hardly get time to read letters now.
– Alexey Navalny (@navalny) April 11, 2023
An ambulance was called on Saturday for severe abdominal pain, but Navalny had no diagnosis, one of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, wrote on Twitter after visiting him in prison.
“We believe they are slowly delivering small doses of poison” in unmarked pills, Veduta said.
A video documentary about Navalny won an Oscar last month. The documentary portrays Navalny’s career in the fight against official corruption, his near-fatal poisoning in 2020, for which he blamed the Kremlin, his recovery during five months in Germany, and his return to Moscow in 2021, when he was arrested. He was later sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and last year was charged again and sentenced to another nine years in prison.
Navalny has been under relentless pressure from the Russian leadership and has often been isolated in a small punishment cell. You are authorized to write letters and receive irregular visits from your lawyers.
Source: DN
