Spokesperson for imprisoned opposition leader in Russia: Navalny may have been slowly poisoning a scientist

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, has been suffering from a mysterious illness in prison and has lost 8 kilos in just over two weeks. His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, says he may be taking a slow-acting poison.

She denounced, saying: “He is being held in a punishment cell, suffering from severe pain and there is no medical assistance.”

A former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago for mocking President Vladimir Putin’s elite and voicing widespread allegations of corruption, Navalny has long predicted that Russia could face political turmoil.

In 2020, he survives an apparent poisoning attempt, while on a trip in Siberia, with what Western lab tests have determined to be a nerve agent. Russia denies trying to kill him.

Navalny was treated for poisoning in Germany but returned voluntarily to Russia in 2021, where he was arrested upon arrival and imprisoned in a fraud case he described as politically motivated.

Yarmysh said that due to Navalny’s mysterious illness, the emergency services were summoned at night from Friday (7) to Saturday (8) to the IK-6 maximum security penal colony in Melikhovo, 250 km from Moscow, where he was arrested.

Last Tuesday (11), his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, confirmed that Alexei Navalny has been imprisoned for two years, is sick and without medical care. The situation is very strange, according to the lawyer.

According to the lawyer, Navalny, 46, suffers from an unknown disease that is not treated by anyone.

Kobzev noted that he does not exclude the possibility that the authorities allow the opponent’s health to deteriorate “gradually”. “We will order toxicological and radiological examinations,” he said.

Earlier this year, Alexei Navalny said he had flu-like symptoms and did not have enough medical care. His supporters denounced the Russian government’s attempt to “kill him little by little”.

Navalny is an activist opposed to President Vladimir Putin. He was arrested in Russia in January 2021, upon his return to the country from Germany, where he had gone to recover from poisoning, which he blamed on the Russian government.

And in March of the same year, the activist was sentenced to nine years in prison under a strict regime on charges of fraud, which he considered fictitious.