A spokeswoman said today that the health condition of the detained Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny, is deteriorating, with suspicion of renewed poisoning, and he has returned to the punishment cell, a few days after he was placed in the usual confinement.
Anna Feduta, a Washington-based deputy head of the Navalny-based Anti-Corruption Foundation, told The Associated Press that the 46-year-old dissident fell ill last Friday when he left the punishment (isolation) cell and was placed in a traditional cell.
In the last 15 days, Navalny has lost more than eight kilograms. On Monday, he reported via Twitter that he had been sent back to a punishment cell for another 15 days.
An ambulance was called on Saturday due to severe stomach pain, but Navalny was not diagnosed, one of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, wrote on Twitter after visiting him in prison.
“We think they’re slowly administering small doses of poison” into unlabeled pills, Feduta said.
A filmed documentary about Navalny won an Oscar last month. The documentary depicts Navalny’s career fighting official corruption, his near-fatal poisoning in 2020, which he blamed on the Kremlin, his recovery over five months in Germany, and his return to Moscow in 2021, when he was arrested. He was later sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, and last year he was the subject of other charges and was sentenced to another nine years in prison.
Navalny was subjected to relentless pressure from the Russian leadership, and was often sequestered in a small punishment cell. You are entitled to write letters and to receive irregular visits from your lawyer.
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