BELOW SUPERNAV drop zone ⇩

Navalny’s team calls protests amid reports of failing health

FILE – In this Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021 file photo, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia. A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, said on Saturday April 17, 2021, his health is deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

MOSCOW (AP) — Activists for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Sunday called for massive protests in the heart of Moscow and St. Petersburg as Navalny’s health reportedly is deteriorating severely while on hunger strike.

Leonid Volkov, a top strategist for Navalny, said the demonstrations were called on short notice for Wednesday because “his life hangs in the balance…We don’t know how long he can hold on. But it is clear we do not have time.”

The 44-year-old Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most visible and persistent critic, started a hunger strike more than three weeks ago to protest prison authorities’ refusal to allow him to be seen by a private doctor for diagnosis of severe back pain and loss of feeling in his legs; the Russian penitentiary service says he is getting adequate care.

On Saturday, a doctor said test results that he received from Navalny’s family showed sharply elevated levels of potassium, which could lead to cardiac arrest, and signs of kidney failure.

“Our patient could die at any moment,” said the doctor, Yaroslav Ashikhmin.

There was no immediate comment from police or government officials about the call for protests, but the response is likely to be harsh. Police arrested more than 10,000 people during nationwide protests in January calling for Navalny to be freed.

The Wednesday protests have been called for symbolically resonant locations — Manezh Square in Moscow, just outside the Kremlin walls, and St. Petersburg’s sprawling Palace Square.

Navalny was arrested on Jan. 17 when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from Soviet nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian officials have denied any involvement and even questioned whether Navalny was poisoned, which was confirmed by several European laboratories.

Navalny was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison on the grounds that his long recovery in Germany violated a suspended sentence he had been given for a fraud conviction in a case that Navalny says was politically motivated.

World

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Site Settings Survey

 

MAIN AREA MIDDLE drop zone ⇩

Trending on NewsNation

MAIN AREA BOTTOM drop zone ⇩

tt

KC Chiefs parade shooting: 1 dead, 21 shot including 9 kids | Morning in America

Witness of Chiefs parade shooting describes suspect | Banfield

Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting: Mom of 2 dead, over 20 shot | Banfield

WWE star Ashley Massaro 'threatened' by board to keep quiet about alleged rape: Friend | Banfield

Friend of WWE star: Ashley Massaro 'spent hours' sobbing after alleged rape | Banfield

Sunny

la

67°F Sunny Feels like 67°
Wind
7 mph SW
Humidity
44%
Sunrise
Sunset

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
50°F Partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Wind
6 mph NNW
Precip
10%
Sunset
Moon Phase
Waxing Gibbous