His relatives explain that the Russian opponent suffers from “sharp pain” whose source is not identified, and that he is not treated. They suspect the use of a “slow-acting poison” on Alexei Navalny.
Imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny is suffering from a mysterious illness that could be similar to a slow poisoning, while he lost eight kilos in just over two weeks, said his spokeswoman Kira Yarmich. “We do not exclude that at this very moment, Alexeï Navalny is slowly poisoned, killed slowly in order to attract less attention”, she wrote on Twitter.
“He is being held in a punishment cell with acute pain and no medical treatment,” she added.
“Our theory is that they kill it off gradually, using a slow-acting poison applied through food,” also tells the Guardian Ruslan Shaveddinov, close to Alexei Navalny.
“It may sound like paranoia, but after the novichok poisoning (in 2020, editor’s note), it seems quite plausible” he adds, stating that “the doctors do not tell him why he is in so much pain” .
“An unknown disease for which no one treats him”
Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Navalny’s lawyer, said Tuesday that his client was suffering from “an unknown disease for which no one is treating him”. “We will demand toxicological and radiological examinations,” he said.
According to Kira Yarmich, the emergency services were called in the night from Friday to Saturday last because of this affection. “During the night from Friday to Saturday, an ambulance was called to his cell because of a stomach illness which worsened”, Vadim Kobzev had also tweeted. But we do not know more about the state of health of Alexeï Navalny since.
“His situation is critical, we are all very worried”, abounds Ruslan Shaveddinov, “the situation must have been very bad if an ambulance was called”, he declares, adding that the prison authorities refused to allow the prisoner to be taken to the hospital.
“Russian prison authorities are using the cruel methods they have been perfecting for years to try to break Alexey Navalny’s spirit by making his existence in the penal colony unbearable, humiliating and dehumanizing,” wrote Amnesty International last September, demanding the activist’s release.
A previous poisoning attempt
Alexei Navalny, 46, is being held in the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, 250 km east of Moscow. Lawyer and anti-corruption activist, he has become for a dozen years the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He is serving a cumulative sentence of eleven and a half years in prison for violation of his judicial control, fraud and contempt of justice, charges he says were fabricated from scratch by the power in place to silence him.
He survived in 2020, during a flight from Siberia to Moscow, an attempted poisoning, using a nerve agent according to Western laboratories. He accused the Russian state of having sought to eliminate him, which the Kremlin denies.
Treated for several months in Germany, Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his voluntary return to Russia, before being sentenced. Since then, his relatives have regularly worried about his deteriorating state of health.
