IN CRITICAL CONDITION Activist claims: Alexei Navalny poisoned in Russian prison

(Patria) - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in critical condition after a possible poisoning, claims Ruslan Shaveddinov, an opposition activist.

Severe abdominal pain was the reason for an ambulance to be called to the prison, and this could all be the result of a slow-acting poison, says Shaveddinov.

His condition is critical

- His condition is critical, we are all very worried - Shaveddinov told The Guardian in a phone interview, emphasizing that the situation must have been very bad if an ambulance was called to the maximum-security prison IK-6 in Melekhovo, about 250 kilometers east of Moscow.

He added that the prison authorities refused to send Navalny to the hospital.

- There has been no news about Navalny's health condition since the ambulance arrived - said Shaveddinov, "because the prison authorities are doing everything they can to isolate him".

Otherwise, Navalny communicates with the outside world through his lawyers and is serving a total sentence of 11 and a half years for various charges including fraud and contempt of court, which human rights groups say are fabricated to silence him.

Concerns about Navalny's health have been growing in recent months, leading to a petition earlier this year by a group of Russian deputies and doctors who, under their full names, demanded that he receive better medical care, despite the risk of criminal prosecution for expressing dissent.

Shaveddinov said his team now believes Navalny is being slowly poisoned.

Lost 8 kilograms in two weeks

Our theory is that they are slowly killing him, using a slow-acting poison that is being introduced into his food. It might sound like paranoia, but after being poisoned with Novichok, it seems very likely.

He lost 8 kilograms in two weeks, this hasn't happened before, and the doctors aren't telling him why he's in so much pain - said Shaveddinov.

Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-made nerve agent, during a trip to Siberia in 2020. He was treated in Berlin and accused Vladimir Putin at the time of being behind the attack.

When asked about the claims that Navalny might be slowly poisoned, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin does not monitor his health condition and that it is a matter for the federal prison service.

Shaveddinov said that the prison authorities are trying to "break" Navalny by constantly placing him in various forms of solitary confinement for minor violations of prison rules or without any explanation.

- Since August, Navalny has spent most of his time in solitary confinement. You can't sleep well, there's no access to the prison food shop, and it's difficult to write and read due to poor lighting - emphasizes Shaveddinov.

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's director for Eastern and Central Europe, said that Russian prison authorities are using cruel methods that they have perfected over years to try to break Alexei Navalny's spirit by making his life in prison unbearable, humiliating, and inhumane, Jutarnji list reports.