Navalny may be suffering from slow poisoning, spokeswoman says

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny might be suffering from slow poisoning causing health struggles, according to his spokesperson. 

Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a tweet on Tuesday that an ambulance was called for him on Friday night because of acute stomach pain. She said Navalny has lost 8 kilograms in the past 15 days while in his punishment cell, but no one has treated him or told him his diagnosis. 

“We do not rule out that all this time in prison he could have been poisoned with something to make his health deteriorate slowly but steadily,” Yarmysh said. 

She said Navalny has asked about what the issue is with his health and a prison doctor “mockingly answers that it is ‘just spring and everyone has exacerbations’.” 

Yarmysh said the issues Navalny is facing are not limited to just his health as he was sent to a punishment cell, solitary confinement, for the 13^th time on Monday. She said an officer told him a “provocation” was being planned against him. 

Navalny is currently serving an 11-and-a-half-year prison sentence for convictions on charges of fraud and embezzlement and breaking parole conditions. Navalny traveled to Germany to seek medical treatment after he was poisoned in an attack he says came from the Russian government in 2020, which Russian authorities said violated his parole conditions. 

He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for the parole violation and nine years for fraud and contempt of court. Navalny has said the charges were trumped up to silence him politically.

Navalny has been a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin told Reuters that it is not following Navalny’s health, and the federal penitentiary service was responsible for overseeing it. 

Navalny has consistently alleged that he is being mistreated and denied medical care while in prison, which Russian officials have denied.