Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny could ‘die any minute’, doctors warn

Name: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny arrested and detained upon return to Russia after near-fatal poisoning
Uploaded: 2021-04-17T18:05:28.000Z
Duration: 2 min 5 s
Description: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny arrested and detained upon return to Russia after near-fatal poisoning

The opposition figure is at risk of cardiac arrest as his health rapidly worsens, doctors say as they request access from prison officials

International celebrities, including Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave and Benedict Cumberbatch, call on Putin to ensure Navalny receives immediate treatment

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands near law enforcement agents in a business centre that houses the office of his Anti-Corruption Foundation in Moscow in December 2019. Photo: AFP

Agence France-Presse

Published: 2:05am, 18 Apr 2021Updated: 7:25pm, 18 Apr 2021

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny risks cardiac arrest at “any minute” as his health has rapidly deteriorated, doctors warned on Saturday, urging immediate access to Russia’s most famous prisoner.

On Sunday his daughter Dasha called on authorities to ensure he gets treatment. “Allow a doctor to see my dad,” the Stanford University student wrote on Twitter.

On March 31, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent went on hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment for back pain and numbness in his legs and hands.

Navalny, 44, was imprisoned in February and is serving 2½ years on old embezzlement charges in a penal colony in the town of Pokrov around 100km (60 miles) east of Moscow.

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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny arrested and detained upon return to Russia after near-fatal poisoning

Navalny’s personal doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva and three more doctors including cardiologist Yaroslav Ashikhmin have asked prison officials to grant them immediate access.