Navalny To Be Moved To Prison Hospital Amid Concerns Over Heatlh

Russia’s prison service says opposition politician Aleksei Navalny will be transferred to a hospital in a correctional facility near his current one amid concerns his health was deteriorating rapidly as he entered his 20th day of a hunger strike over his medical treatment.

“At present, A. Navalny’s health condition is assessed as satisfactory; he is examined by a general practitioner every day. With the consent of the patient, he was prescribed vitamin therapy,” the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) branch in the Vladimir region said in a statement on April 19.

Just before the weekend, Navalny’s personal doctor and three other physicians, including a cardiologist, pleaded for access to the 44-year-old in a letter to the FSIN, saying he could suffer cardiac arrest at “any minute.”

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, warned over the weekend that the Kremlin critic — who months earlier fell gravely ill after a poison attack with a chemical nerve agent — could die within “days” if action wasn’t taken soon.

Navalny’s situation is adding to already severe strains in Russia’s ties with the West. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on April 18 that the U.S. government had told Russia “there will be consequences” if Navalny dies in prison.

European Union foreign ministers are expected to discuss the Navalny case on April 19.

Josep Borrell, the bloc’s top diplomat, warned ahead of the meeting that the EU will hold Moscow responsible for the Kremlin critic’s health.

“We make the Russian authorities responsible for the health situation of Mr. Navalny,” Borrell said.

Navalny was arrested in January on his arrival from Germany, where he was treated after being poisoned in Siberia in August 2020 with what was defined by European labs as a Novichok nerve agent. He has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the poisoning, which the Kremlin has denied.

A Moscow court in February converted a 3 1/2-year suspended sentence on a charge that Navalny and his supporters call politically motivated to real jail time, saying he broke the terms of the original sentence by leaving Russia for Germany for the life-saving treatment he received.

The court reduced the time Navalny must spend in prison to just over 2 1/2 years because of time already served in detention.

On April 18, Navalny’s allies called on people to stage massive protests across the country on April 21 before Navalny is harmed “irreparably.”

Early on April 19, Vladimir Milov, a close associate of Navalny, announced he had fled the country to keep from getting arrested.