The Kremlin’s prisoner Alexei Navalny is at risk of a cardiac arrest at any moment, as his health has deteriorated rapidly, doctors warned on Saturday, demanding immediate access to Russia’s most famous prisoner.
On March 31, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent went on hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment for back pain and numbness in his legs and hands.
On Saturday, Joe Biden added his voice to a growing international chorus of protests over the activist’s treatment, describing his situation as “totally unfair”.
Navalny, 44, was captured in February and is serving two and a half years on charges of embezzlement in a penal colony in the city of Pokrov, about 100 km east of Moscow.
Navalny’s personal doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva and three other doctors, including cardiologist Yaroslav Ashikhmin, asked prison officials to grant them immediate access.
“Our patient could die at any moment,” Ashikhmin said on Facebook on Saturday, pointing to the high potassium levels of the opposition politician, saying Navalny should be moved to intensive care. “Fatal arrhythmia can develop at any moment.”
Navalny barely survived a poisoning with the novichok nerve agent, which he blamed on the Kremlin. His doctors say his hunger strike may have worsened his condition.
Having potassium levels higher than 6.0 mmol (millimoles) per liter usually requires immediate treatment. Navalny’s was at 7.1, doctors said. “This means that both kidney function is impaired and that serious heart rhythm problems can occur at any moment,” reads a statement on Vasilyeva’s Twitter account.
According to the doctors, he should be examined immediately, taking into account the blood tests and his recent poisoning.
Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, who accompanied him when he crashed into a plane in August, said the situation was again critical. “Alexei is dying,” she said on Facebook. “With his condition, it’s a matter of days.”
She said she felt she was’ on the plane ‘again, but only this time in slow motion land’, pointing out that access to Navalny was limited and that few Russians were aware of what was going on with him in prison. continue.
Biden responded to reporters’ questions about Navalny’s plight on Saturday: “This is completely unfair, completely inappropriate.”
More than 70 prominent international writers, artists and academics, including Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave and Benedict Cumberbatch, have asked Putin to ensure that Navalny receives proper treatment immediately. Their appeal was published late Friday in the French newspaper Le Monde.
Navalny’s team had earlier announced plans to step up which they said would be “Russia’s biggest protest”. Navalny’s allies said they would set a date for the protest once 500,000 supporters had registered on a website. As of 22:30 on Saturday, more than 450,000 people had entered.
Yarmysh on Saturday called on more Russians to report, saying a major rally could help save Navalny’s life. “Putin is only responding to mass street protests,” she added.
Earlier this week, Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who visited him in the penal colony, said her husband now weighed 76kg – less than 9kg since he started his hunger strike.
On Friday, Russian prosecutors asked a court to label Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and the network of its regional offices ‘extremist’ organizations in a move that bans them in Russia and could lead to imprisonment for their members.
“The darkest times are beginning for free-thinking people, for civil society in Russia,” said Leonid Volkov, head of Navalny’s regional offices.