Alexey Navalny, during his trial in Moscow on February 20, 2021. – Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP / SIPA
The imprisoned Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny announced this Friday to end his hunger strike that began three weeks ago to denounce his conditions of detention, raising concerns for his health and Russian-Western tensions. The day before, doctors close to Alexeï Navalny, including his personal doctor, had urged him to stop “immediately” his hunger strike, saying they feared his death or “considerable damage” to his health if he continued.
“I’m starting to end my hunger strike,” the 44-year-old opponent wrote in a post on his Instagram account. Alexeï Navalny had stopped eating on March 31 to protest against his conditions of detention, accusing the prison administration of depriving him of access to a doctor while he suffered from a double herniated disc, according to his lawyers. The Kremlin’s most famous opponent and adversary also complained, before his hunger strike, of a loss of sensitivity in his legs which he said could be a consequence of the poisoning he suffered last summer and of which he accuses the Kremlin.
Navalny auscultated
According to his ally Leonid Volkov, who was speaking Thursday evening, Alexeï Navalny was finally able to be examined this week in a civilian hospital and his medical file was sent to his doctors. “The doctors in whom I fully believe announced yesterday that we had achieved enough for me to end my hunger strike,” Alexeï Navalny wrote on Friday.
“With the tremendous support of good people across the country and abroad, we have made great strides. Two months ago we laughed at my requests for medical assistance, I was not given any medicine, ”added the opponent. As of Wednesday evening, thousands of his supporters gathered in many Russian cities, demonstrations that resulted in more than 1,900 arrests.
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