MOSCOW – Russia’s penitentiary service said on Monday it had decided to transfer Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was on his third week of hunger strike, to hospital.
The announcement comes two days after Navalny’s doctor said his health was deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.
LITTLE CRITICAL NAVALNY Losing feeling in his hands, feet in the middle of a hunger strike, says lawyer
The state penitentiary service, FSIN, said in a statement that Navalny would be transferred to a hospital for convicts in another penal colony in Vladimir, a city 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Moscow. According to the statement, Navalny’s condition is considered “satisfactory” and he agreed to take vitamin supplements.
Russia’s state penitentiary service said Monday that a decision had been made to transfer Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was on his third week of hunger strike, to a hospital. (Moscow Tribunal through PA)
Navalny’s doctor, Yaroslav Ashikhmin, said on Saturday that the results of tests he received from the Navalny family show him crude levels of potassium, which can cause cardiac arrest and high levels of creatinine that indicate kidney damage.
Navalny went on hunger strike to protest his refusal to allow his doctors to visit when he began to have severe back pain and a loss of feeling in his legs. Russia’s state penitentiary service says Navalny is getting all the medical help he needs.
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In response to alarming news about Navalny’s health this weekend, his allies convened a nationwide rally on Wednesday, the same day President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to deliver the nation’s annual state speech.