Russian municipal deputies demand medical assistance for Navalni

Several deputies of Russian regional parliaments published today an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they ask the authorities to immediately provide medical aid to the opposition leader Alexei Navalni, who is being held in a prison at 110 kilometers east of Moscow.

“The state of health of the political prisoner Navalni endangers his life,” says the letter, published by one of its twelve signatories Lev Shlosberg on Telegram.

Legislators, including deputies from the parliaments of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Karelia and Pskov, demand that Navalni’s trusted doctors can see him “immediately” and hospitalize him in case there is such a need.

For the authors of the letter, what happens with Navalni is “an attempt on the life” of the opposition politician.

Navalni said on Friday that the prison authorities in the Vladimir region where the politician is serving his sentence have recognized his “serious” deterioration in health and threaten to start force-feeding him if his hunger strike does not stop.

The 44-year-old opponent has lost 16 kilos since he entered prison in February and 9 since he began his hunger strike on March 31 in protest at the refusal of the prison services to be examined by a trusted doctor.

In turn, the prison services reported that the medical examinations to which Navalni was subjected in early April showed that the inmate’s condition is satisfactory.