MOSCOW – Russian prison authorities on Monday moved seriously ill opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny to a hospital for what has been described as vitamin treatment.
The Russian prison system has issued a statement saying a commission of government doctors has decided to move Mr Navalny, who is now on hunger strike for almost three weeks. Mr Navalny’s personal doctors have reported that he suffers from a number of severe symptoms which they call life-threatening.
There was no immediate response from Mr Navalny’s political allies or personal doctors on the vitamin treatment recommendation. Over the weekend, they said Mr Navalny’s blood tests showed a risk of imminent heart or kidney failure.
His potassium levels were elevated, and tests showed other signs of possible kidney disease, his doctors said. But hunger is only a problem in his declining health. Mr Navalny’s lawyers say the persistent effects of an almost fatal poisoning with a military nerve agent last summer may also suffer.
Mr Navalny was treated in Germany after the apparent poisoning, but on his return to Russia he was arrested on parole for a conviction that he and his allies had been rejected as politically motivated. He is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence.
The governments of the United States and Europe have issued statements calling for appropriate treatment of Mr Navalny, and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said the Russian government will face “consequences if Mr Navalny dies”.
The transfer to a hospital in a high-security prison east of Moscow could indicate a worsening of Mr Navalny’s condition. But the statement from the prison authorities suggested that the aim was a closer medical observation. “Currently, A. Navalny’s health is assessed as satisfactory,” the statement said. He added that he was seen daily by a doctor and that he agreed to start a “vitamin therapy” course.