Detained Putin critic loses 8kg in two weeks

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is ill and unable to secure treatment in a Russian labour camp, his lawyer says.

Alexei Navalny appears in a Moscow court in February 2021. Picture: AFP

Jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is ill and without treatment has lost 8kg in just over two weeks, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

The 46-year-old was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he recovered from a poison attack the previous year he blamed on the Kremlin.

Mr Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure, is now serving a nine-year sentence on embezzlement and other charges that his supporters see as a punishment for him challenging President Vladimir Putin.

“In the night of Friday to Saturday an ambulance was called to his cell because of a stomach illness that worsened,” lawyer Vadim Kobzev tweeted.

Mr Navalny was suffering from “an unknown illness that no one is treating”, he said. “According to his medical file, in the last 15 days he has lost 8kg.”

Medicine that Mr Navalny’s mother sends him is “returned to her”, he said. Mr Navalny suffers from “crises”, Mr Kobzev noted, not ruling out an attempt by the authorities to let his health “deteriorate … progressively”. “We will demand toxicology and radiology examinations,” he said.

At the start of the year Mr ­Navalny said he had flu symptoms and no proper access to care, leading his supporters to claim the Kremlin was trying to kill him slowly. He has frequently criticised the Ukraine ­offensive from prison and called on Russians to protest.

AFP