Jailed Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Possibly Poisoned Again

Wim De Gent
By Wim De Gent
April 14, 2023Europe
share
Jailed Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Possibly Poisoned Again
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia, opposition politician Lyubov Sobol and other demonstrators march in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in downtown Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 29, 2020. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, is grappling with severe stomach pain in jail probably caused by a slow-acting poison, his spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Navalny, who is held at a maximum security prison in Melekhovo, about 155 miles (250 km) east of Moscow, became seriously unwell late Friday night, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told Reuters. An ambulance was called.

The 46-year-old Navalny was suffering from stomach pains all week, Yarmysh said. He was unable to eat the prison food provided to him, as it made his pain increasingly worse. On Monday, prison staff banned Navalny from buying alternative food.

“He doesn’t eat anything because he is prohibited from receiving parcels with food or to buy food in the prison store, and the food that is provided by the prison to him actually worsens his stomach pain,” Yarmysh said in English.

“His health is not a good condition,” she said. “We can’t rule out the idea that he is being poisoned, not in a huge dosage as before, but in small ones so that he doesn’t die immediately but for him to suffer and to ruin his health.”

Three years ago, Navalny was badly poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent during a visit to Siberia. Navalny blamed Putin for the attack, but the Kremlin denied any wrongdoing. Navalny received treatment in Germany. He was arrested upon his return to Russia in 2021 over an ongoing lawsuit.

Just last month, a documentary about his poisoning won the Oscar for best documentary.

Navalny managed to inform Reuters on Monday that he was sentenced to 15 days in solitary confinement after his supporters released a probe showing the prison service was charging too much for cabbage and pocketing the surplus. He called his present situation “extremely hellish.”

Yarmysh said Navalny had suffered similar stomach pains in January when he was treated with antibiotics for a virus. She added that the medicine sent to the prison by Navalny’s mother was never collected from the post office and instead returned.

“He is in total isolation and we do not know what is happening to him,” she said. “I am actually terrified because no one knows what is happening.”

Navalny, a former lawyer and popular critic of Putin’s rule, is seen by his supporters as a Russian version of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who will one day be freed from jail to lead the country. The Kremlin views him and his supporters as extremists linked to the CIA, intent on destabilizing Russia from within.

Currently, Navalny is serving a combined sentence of 11 and a half years for fraud and contempt of court, charges he said were fabricated. Indeed, in 2017, the European Court of Human Rights condemned several of the Russian lawsuits against Navalny as “arbitrary and unfair.”

Yarmysh called Navalny “an innocent man” who is “only in prison due to Putin’s personal hatred.”

The Kremlin says Navalny was found guilty in a court of law and that claims of any personal hatred are unfounded, adding that it was not following the state of Navalny’s health, deeming it a concern of the prison facility.

Reuters contributed to this article.

ntd newsletter icon
Sign up for NTD Daily
What you need to know, summarized in one email.
Stay informed with accurate news you can trust.
By registering for the newsletter, you agree to the Privacy Policy.
Comments