Alexei Navlany’s health is failing and he ‘could die any moment’, the Kremlin critic’s doctor has warned, three weeks into a hunger strike over conditions in Russian jail.
Yaroslav Ashikhmin, a doctor acting on behalf of Navalny’s family, said test results received from the Russian penal colony where the activist is being held show potentially fatal levels of potassium in his blood along with signs of kidney failure.
‘Our patient could die at any moment,’ Ashikhmin warned.
Navalny, 44, has been on hunger strike since March 31 because he says Russian prison guards are refusing him proper treatment for acute pain in his back and numbness in his legs. Moscow insists he is being given adequate care.
News of Navalny’s deteriorating condition prompted warnings from the US that Moscow faces ‘consequences’ if he is allowed to die in jail.
Alexei Navalny is showing signs of kidney damage and could die ‘at any moment’ as he continues a three-week hunger strike over conditions in a US jail, his doctor has said (pictured, Navalny in jail last month)
EU leaders also warned that sanctions recently imposed on Moscow could be increased if Navalny dies, while activists within Russia called for nationwide protests next week to pressure the government to act.
The issue is due to be discussed at a summit of EU foreign ministers which will take place in Brussels on Monday, German foreign minister Heiko Maas said.
‘The package of sanctions is already significant, but there may be others,’ French foreign minister Yves le Drain added.
Meanwhile US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington is ‘looking at a variety of different costs that we would impose… if Mr Navalny dies.’
He refused to be drawn into specifics, but said Moscow is aware of the threat.
Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s most-prominent critic, was first arrested in January upon his return to Russia following a suspected Novichok poisoning, that is thought to have been carried out by an FSB hit squad.
He was then jailed for two and a half years the following month over an old embezzlement case, and transferred to a penal colony on February 26.
Navalny says he is being denied medical attention for acute pain in his back and numbness in his legs by guards inside the penal colony (pictured) where he is being held
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan (left) has warned Moscow of ‘consequences’ if Navalny dies, while German foreign minister Heiko Maas has said sanctions could be increased
On March 15 he uploaded his first Instagram post from inside jail, likening conditions to ‘a concentration camp’ alongside an image of him with a shaved head.
Then, on March 31, Navalny revealed in a hand-written letter posted online by his team that he had gone on hunger strike after being denied proper medical care.
He wrote: ‘I really need a doctor. Every convict has the right [by law] to invite a specialist to examine and consult him. Even I have such a right and I’m innocent.
‘I demand that a doctor be allowed to see me, and until this happens, I am declaring a hunger strike.’
Navalny has previously posted online about his declining health since he started the strike, saying that prison wardens had threatened to force-feed him.
But the sudden deterioration in his health this weekend prompted Leonid Volkov, a top strategist for Navalny, to call for demonstrations to take place on Wednesday.
The demonstrations are due to take place in symbolic locations – Manezh Square in Moscow, just outside the Kremlin, and St. Petersburg’s sprawling Palace Square.
Russian activists have called for nationwide protests to pressure the government into saving Navalny, after large demonstrations in January were met with a brutal police response
Police did not immediately respond, but marchers likely face a harsh crackdown.
Officers arrested more than 10,000 people during demonstrations that took place in January, in what was the largest show of defiance against Putin in years.
The saga is playing out against the backdrop of increased tensions between Russia and the west over a troop build-up in Ukraine that is unprecedented in recent years.
Russia insists that troops are being stationed along the border in response to NATO activities, but the alliance denies any build-up of its own and has called on Putin to ‘de-escalate’ the situation.
Putin himself has given no explanation for the build-up, but observers have suggested that it could be designed as a ‘test’ for Joe Biden after he took a tough line with the Kremlin, and as Putin sizes up his new counterpart.
Others have suggested that Putin is responding to pressures within Russia itself, including growing political opposition from Navalny and those linked to him.