MOSCOW – Russian prison authorities have moved seriously ill opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny to a hospital for treatment on Monday.
The Russian prison system has issued a statement saying that a commission of government doctors has decided to act for Mr. Navalny, who has been on hunger strike for almost three weeks now. Navalny’s personal doctors report that he suffers from a series of serious symptoms that they call life-threatening.
There was no immediate response from Mr. Navalny’s political allies or personal doctors over the recommendation for treatment with vitamins. Over the weekend, they said that Mr. Navalny’s blood tests showed the risk of imminent heart or kidney failure.
His potassium levels were elevated, and tests showed other signs of possible kidney disease, his doctors said. But famine is only one problem in his deteriorating health. Mr. Navalny’s lawyers say he may also be suffering from the persistent consequences of an almost fatal poisoning with a military nerve agent this past summer.
Mr. Navalny was treated in Germany after the apparent poisoning, but on his return to Russia he was arrested on a parole violation for a belief that he and his allies were politically motivated. He is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence.
The US and European governments have issued statements in which they provide adequate treatment for Mr. Navalny asked, and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the Russian government would “face consequences if Mr Navalny dies.”
The transfer to a hospital in a high-security prison east of Moscow may indicate a deteriorating condition of Mr. But the statement from the prison authorities indicates that the goal is closer medical observation. “The health of A. Navalny is currently being assessed as satisfactory,” the statement said. It added that he was being observed daily by a doctor and that he had agreed to start a course of ‘vitamin therapy’.