Closed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny risks stopping his heart at “any minute” because his health has deteriorated rapidly, doctors warned on Saturday, demanding immediate access to Russia’s most famous prisoner.
On March 31, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent went on a hunger strike to demand appropriate medical treatment for back pain and numbness in his legs and hands.
On Saturday, Joe Biden added his voice to a growing international refrain from protesting the activist’s treatment, describing the situation as “totally unfair.”
Navalny, 44, was jailed in February and served two and a half years on charges of embezzlement in a penal colony in the town of Pokrov, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Moscow.
Navalny’s personal doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, and three other doctors, including cardiologist Yaroslav Ashikhmin, called on prison officials to grant them immediate access.
“Our patient can die at any time,” Ashikhmin said on Facebook on Saturday, pointing to the opposition politician’s high potassium level and saying Navalny should be moved to intensive care. “Fatal arrhythmia can develop at any minute.”
Navalny barely survived a poisoning with nerve agent novichok in August, which he blamed on the Kremlin. His doctors say the hunger strike could have made his condition worse.
To have blood potassium levels higher than 6.0 mmol (millimoles) per liter, immediate treatment is usually needed. Navalny was at 7.1, doctors said. “This means both kidney dysfunction and serious heart rhythm problems can occur at any time,” Vasilyeva said on a Twitter account.
Doctors said he should be examined immediately “taking into account his blood tests and recent poisoning.”
Navalny’s spokesman Kira Yarmysh, who accompanied him when he crashed into a plane after the August poisoning, said the situation was critical again. “Alexei is dying,” she said on Facebook. “With his condition, it’s a matter of days.”
She said she felt “back on that plane, only this time landing in slow motion,” noting that access to Navalny was restricted and few Russians were aware of what was actually happening to him in prison.
On Saturday, answering reporters’ questions about Navalny’s plight, Biden said, “It’s totally, completely unfair, totally inappropriate.”
More than 70 renowned international writers, artists and academics, including Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave and Benedict Cumberbatch, have called on Putin to ensure that Navalny receives appropriate treatment immediately. Their call was published late Friday by the French newspaper Le Monde.
Navalny’s team had earlier announced plans to organize what they called “Russia’s largest modern protest.” Navalny’s allies said they would set a date for the protest after 500,000 supporters registered on a website. On Saturday, starting at 10.30 pm, more than 450,000 people registered.
Yarmysh urged several Russians to sign up on Saturday, saying a large rally could help save Navalny’s life. “Putin only reacts to mass street protests,” she added.
Earlier this week, Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who visited him in the penal colony, said her husband now weighed 76kg – 9kg down since the hunger strike began.
On Friday, Russian prosecutors asked a court to label the Navalny Anticorruption Foundation and the network of its regional offices “extremist” organizations to an extent that would outlaw them in Russia and could lead to imprisonment for their members.
“The darkest times are beginning for free-thinking people, for Russian civil society,” said Leonid Volkov, head of Navalny’s regional offices.