Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a glass cell on February 20, 2021 during a hearing in Babushkinsky District Court in Moscow.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty images
A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, says his health is deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic is on the verge of death.
Doctor Yaroslav Ashikhmin said Saturday that the test results he received from Navalny’s family show him greatly elevated potassium levels, which can cause cardiac arrest, and elevated creatinine levels that indicate reduced kidneys.
“Our patient could die any moment,” he said in a Facebook post.
Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union, said on Twitter that “immediate action must be taken.”
Navalny is the most visible and adamant opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His personal doctors have not been allowed to see him in prison. He went on a hunger strike to protest the refusal to allow them to visit when he developed severe back pain and numbness in his legs. The Russian state prison has said that Navalny is getting all the medical attention he needs.
Navalny was arrested January 17 when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had recovered for five months from Soviet nerve poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian officials denied any involvement and even questioned whether Navalny had been poisoned, which was confirmed by several European laboratories.
Asked about Navalny’s deteriorating condition, US President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday, “It’s completely unfair and totally inappropriate. Based on having the poison and then on a hunger strike.”
Navalny was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison because his long recovery in Germany violated a suspended sentence he had received for a fraud conviction in a case Navalny said was politically motivated.