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Supporters of the Russian opposition leader jailed Alexei Navalny they have asked the Russians to protest his harsh treatment in prison, saying he could end his imminent death.
Leonid Volkov, who runs the Navalny Foundation since exile in Vilnius, Lithuania, said in a video message Sunday that the life of anti-corruption activist “hung by a thread” for 19 days in a strike of hunger in protest of the prison’s refusal to leave him consult a doctor of your choice.
“However, we may not want to think about it, distance ourselves or change the subject; it does not change the fact that they are killing Alexei Navalny. In the most terrible way. In front of all of us,” Volkov said.
“And the question arises before everyone, whether we like it or not: are we ready to do something to save the life of a man who has risked his for many years?”
Cardiologist Yaroslav Ashikhmin on Saturday released test results that said it showed Navalny had elevated creatine levels that could lead to kidney failure, as well as life-threatening potassium levels that could cause cardiac arrest at “any time.”
The sharp deterioration in Navalny’s health comes when the Kremlin seems increasingly determined to eliminate the threat of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic.
Russian prosecutors said Friday they would have the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation and its network of regional offices declared an “extremist organization,” an unprecedented move that would essentially shut down its operations while exposing its team to possible criminal proceedings.
Navalny supporters described his group’s repression and harsh treatment in prison as a “desperate attack” by the Kremlin in response to declining Putin approval ratings amid a years-long economic downturn.
“If we don’t talk now, the darkest moments for free people are near. Russia will go down in utter despair. Peaceful political activity in Russia will be impossible, “said Ivan Zhdanov, head of the Navalny Foundation.
Navalny’s team called for the protest – which they called “the final battle between good and neutrality” – to be held Wednesday evening in a square in front of the Kremlin. A few hours earlier, Putin will make his annual speech on the state of the nation to Russia’s elite.
The rally will be a major test of support for Navalny – and the Kremlin’s willingness to crack it down – after a strong police response forced them to abandon protests over his arrest in more than 100 cities this January.
Navalny, 44, was arrested at Moscow airport in January immediately after returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from intoxication with military nerve agent Novichok.
He was then ordered to spend two-and-a-half years in prison for missing parole meetings related to a 2014 suspended sentence, including several while in a coma after intoxication.
On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden said Navalny’s treatment was “totally unfair, totally inappropriate because he was poisoned and then on hunger strike. Bad.”
The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the poisoning, imprisonment and conditions of its Navalny closure.
“He will not be allowed to die in prison, but I can say that Mr Navalny is behaving like a hooligan, absolutely,” Andrei Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, said on Sunday. “His purpose for all of this is to get attention for him.”
Leonid Volkov, left, and Ivan Zhdanov call on Russians to protest Alexei Navalny’s harsh treatment in prison © John Thys / AFP / Getty Images
Last month he was transferred to a prison colony with a reputation for harsh treatment of detainees.
He went hunger strike in late March, in protest of the guards’ refusal to let him be treated by a doctor he chose for severe nerve pain from two herniated discs in his back, as well as sleep deprivation tactics, he said they were equivalent the “torture.”
Navalny’s team is likely to face significant difficulties in organizing the protest after prosecutors considered his organization “extremist”.
This designation equates Navalny and his supporters with the neo-Nazis, al-Qaeda, and the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo. It means his leadership’s leadership could be jailed for up to ten years and supporters could face up to eight years in prison for giving, according to Pavel Chikov, head of Agora, a legal aid foundation.
Since Russia declared Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist organization” in 2017, 463 members of the Christian faith have faced criminal charges, while police have searched 1,416 homes of group members, Chikov said. .
Several of Navalny’s main allies are under house arrest accused of violating public health rules by organizing unapproved protests for his release in January.
Police have arrested Zhdanov’s elderly father, as well as several employees at the Navalny regional headquarters in recent weeks.
On Friday, a court also sentenced Pavel Zelensky, the foundation’s chamberlain, to two years in prison for writing two tweets considered “extremist.”
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