Name: Alexei Navalny moved to prison hospital amid fears for Putin critic’s life
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Alexei Navalny moved to prison hospital amid fears for Putin critic’s life

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This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldDoctors say opposition leader, who is on hunger strike, is in danger of a heart attack or kidney failureLast modified on Tue 20 Apr 2021 05.29 EDTAlexei Navalny has been transferred to a prison hospital as concerns have grown among supporters that the Russian opposition leader is dangerously ill and could die “at any minute”.Navalny’s transfer came after his doctors warned at the weekend that the Kremlin critic, who has been on hunger strike for nearly three weeks, was in danger of a heart attack or kidney failure.In a statement on Monday, Russia’s prisons service said a doctors’ committee had decided to transfer Navalny to an infirmary in another prison in the Vladimir region that “specialises in dynamic monitoring of similar patients”.“Currently Navalny’s health is evaluated as satisfactory, he is being examined daily by a doctor. With his agreement he has been prescribed vitamin therapy,” it said.His doctors and other representatives do not know what regime has been prescribed and whether he freely consented to it.Navalny’s supporters say the authorities are hiding information about his condition and described the infirmary in the IK-3 prison colony as specialising in critically ill tuberculosis patients.“This needs to be recognised as showing that Navalny’s condition has worsened,” wrote Ivan Zhdanov, the head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. “And it’s gotten so much worse that even the torture chamber has admitted it.”Navalny’s top aides have announced large protests in his support on Wednesday, setting up a potential clash between demonstrators and police. Russia’s Internet watchdog Roskomnadzor has ordered YouTube to take down a video featuring Navalny’s aides Leonid Volkov and Zhdanov announcing plans to hold Wednesday’s protest, saying that it urged people to join an unsanctioned rally. As of Monday evening, YouTube had not taken down the video.A court in Moscow has also set a hearing for next week in a case brought by prosecutors to recognise Navalny’s organisation as extremist. If a decision is taken quickly, then the courts could order the liquidation of much of Navalny’s organisation by the end of the month, threatening fines and jail time for those who continue to support him.One of his top allies, Vladimir Milov, announced on Monday he had fled Russia for to avoid possible arrest ahead of the rally.“We consulted with our colleagues and decided that it is better for me not to be arrested now, because my area of work is very important,” Milov said in a live webcast from the Navalny Live YouTube channel. Many of Navalny’s leading supporters in Russia have been put under house arrest as part of ongoing investigations into a series of opposition protests from January.On Monday, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said “we make the Russian authorities responsible for the health situation of Mr Navalny”, as the US has threatened consequences if Navalny were to die in prison.Borrell’s remarks came ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, where European envoys are expected to discuss Navalny’s case and growing tensions with Moscow over a military buildup on the Ukrainian border, as well as revelations of a suspected GRU plot behind a deadly explosion at a Czech ammunition warehouse in 2014.There are few signs the Kremlin is willing to relent or give in to demands by the US president, Joe Biden, and other western leaders for Navalny to be released from custody. On Sunday, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, accused Navalny of attention-seeking behaviour.“He will not be allowed to die in prison, but I can say that Mr Navalny, he behaves like a hooligan, absolutely,” Kelin told the BBC. The ambassador added: “His purpose for all of that is to attract attention for him[self].”

This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldDoctors say opposition leader, who is on hunger strike, is in danger of a heart attack or kidney failureLast modified on Tue 20 Apr 2021 05.29 EDTAlexei Navalny has been transferred to a prison hospital as concerns have grown among supporters that the Russian opposition leader is dangerously ill and could die “at any minute”.Navalny’s transfer came after his doctors warned at the weekend that the Kremlin critic, who has been on hunger strike for nearly three weeks, was in danger of a heart attack or kidney failure.In a...

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Andrew Roth

TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and Guardian Unlimited, is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.

Alexei Navalny moved to prison hospital amid fears for Putin critic’s life

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