- Senator Bernie Sanders said Putin was killing Alexei Navalny “in front of the world.”
- Navalny’s team warned that his health was deteriorating rapidly to the point where he could die.
- Critic Putin was transferred to another penal colony infirmary on Monday.
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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont did not speak, supporting growing calls for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to receive adequate medical treatment.
“Make no mistake about what is happening here: activist Aleksai Navalny is being killed in front of the world by Vladimir Putin for the crime of exposing Putin’s vast corruption. Navalny’s doctors must be allowed to see him immediately,” he said. Sanders said in a tweet on Sunday.
The Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Insider.
The Vermont senator’s criticism of the Russian president came after Navalny’s doctor warned he could “die at any moment.” The Biden administration has warned Russia that it will have consequences if Navalny dies.
—USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 19, 2021
Navalny has been on hunger strike for several weeks, demanding proper medical care for complaints of back pain and numbness in one of his legs.
The anti-corruption activist on Monday was transferred to a prison hospital, in a separate penal colony from where he was being held. Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said Navalny’s condition was “satisfactory,” according to ABC News.
Meanwhile, Navalny’s allies warned that his health was deteriorating rapidly and prevented him from referring to the unit to which he had been transferred as a “hospital”.
“Please do not write that Navalny was transferred to a hospital. It’s not a hospital, it’s just another penal colony that has the same torturous conditions, the same everything, except that there are few officially qualified doctors on the spot. does not change anything “, Maria Pevchikh, investigator at the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, he said in a tweet.
Navalny faced an apparent assassination attempt in August, when he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, which can cause persistent health effects. Navalny blamed Putin for the incident. Leaders around the world have condemned Putin for poisoning. Critics of the Russian president have often been killed in violent or mysterious ways.
In September, Navalny was taken to Germany for medical treatment. On his return to Moscow in January, he was arrested and charged with violating parole – including while in Germany – for a 2014 suspended sentence for fraud. Navalny, who argued that all charges against him were politically motivated, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.