It has been reported that Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s health has deteriorated significantly recently.
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in critical condition after possible poisoning, Navalny’s aide Ruslan Shaveddinov says the newspaper For The Guardian (you are switching to another service).
Navanyi, who has been imprisoned in Russia until 2021, has suffered from severe stomach pain in prison. Navalny’s close circle believes that the pains may be caused by a slow-acting poison.
Shaveddinov himself hosts, for example, Navalny’s foundation’s YouTube videos. He tells The Guardian by phone that he is worried about Navalny’s life.
– His situation is critical. We are all very worried, says Shaveddinov.
Last week, Navalny felt so bad that an ambulance was called for him. However, Navalny was not agreed to be released from prison to the hospital, says Shaveddinov.
According to Shaveddinov, the prison staff is doing everything to isolate Navalny, which is why there has been no update on his condition since the ambulance visit.
– Our theory is that they kill him gradually using a slow-acting poison that is spread through food, says Shaveddinov.
Earlier this week also Navalny’s press secretary Kira Jarmyš said it is not out of the question that Navalny was poisoned while in prison.
According to Jarmysh, Navalnyi had suddenly lost a lot of weight and his health was deteriorating day by day.
– This may sound paranoid, but after the Novichok poisoning it seems completely plausible. He lost eight kilos in two weeks. This has not happened before, and the doctors do not tell him why he is in so much pain, says Shaveddinov.
46-year-old Navalnyi is serving an 11.5-year sentence for, among other things, fraud and contempt of court. Navalny’s sentence is widely considered political in the West, in order to silence the opposition movement he leads.