Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny ends hunger strike – Everett Post

Everett

(NEW YORK) – Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny said he was ending a hunger strike after 24 days after his doctors had given dire warnings the day before.

Navalny, known as the Kremlin’s fiercest critic, went on hunger strike in late March to demand that the authorities allow his own doctors to treat him for severe back pain caused by two herniated discs. Since last weekend, Navalny’s allies have been warning that his health is seriously deteriorating, and this week thousands of people joined protests across Russia after his team warned he could be days before death.

Navalny doctors published an open letter on Thursday asking him to end the hunger strike. His blood tests showed that his kidneys were failing and that he would soon fall into a likely fatal coma.

Navalny, 44, said in a message posted on Instagram Friday that he now accepts that advice and would start eating again. He said he partially stopped the strike because he had made some progress by forcing authorities to accept his demands for more medical care and found that he had now been examined twice by doctors outside of prison.

“Doctors whom I trust fully issued a statement yesterday that we had achieved enough to end my hunger strike,” wrote Navalny. “And also – I’ll be honest – their words about how my tests show: ‘In a minimal amount of time there will be no one to be treated’ … hmmm … it seemed to me that they deserved attention.”

Navalny also thanked people in Russia and around the world for their “tremendous support”, saying this forced the authorities to temper their refusal to treat him.

Authorities moved Navalny to a prison hospital in another nearby penal camp on Sunday, where, according to his lawyers, he was given intravenous drops of glucose. This week he was taken to a nearby hospital in the city of Vladimir, where he was examined by a group of non-prison doctors.

Navalny said this was already a postponement of his treatment, although authorities continued to refuse to be examined by his own doctors. He said he still wanted a doctor about his back pain, which was causing him to lose feeling in his arms and legs.

“Thanks to the great support from good people across the country and all of this, we’ve made great strides,” Navalny said on the social media post. “Two months ago, they grinned at my requests for medical help. Now a council of civilian doctors has examined me twice. They examine me and do tests and give me the results and conclusions. “

Navalny also said he quit because some ordinary Russians had started their own hunger strikes in solidarity with him and he did not want to risk their health. He asked people to wish him the best of luck and said the process of recovery and re-feeding after 24 days was difficult and tedious.

The terrible warnings about Navalny’s health caused global concern, and European countries and the United States warned Russia that there would be consequences if Navalny died in prison.

Thousands of people in dozens of Russian cities joined the protests by Navalny’s team on Wednesday. Police arrested nearly 2,000 people during the demonstrations, but, with the exception of St. Petersburg, police were generally far less aggressive than during similar protests in January after Navalny was first arrested.

Russian authorities have insisted that Navalny’s treatment was appropriate, and the Kremlin had rejected Western demands that he should be released and have access to adequate medical care.

Navalny was arrested in January when he returned to Russia for the first time since his near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent last summer. He was sentenced to two and a half years in a prison camp for alleged parole violations in a case widely condemned as politically motivated.

Although the end of Navalny’s strike removes the immediate threat to him, his movement has come under heavy pressure from authorities who are now trying to ban his organizations. A Moscow court will open hearings on a case brought by prosecutors declaring the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation and its regional campaign offices to be “extremist groups”. In doing so, legislation is applied that is nominally intended for violent terrorist groups such as ISIS. Anyone who participates in or publicly advocates Navalny’s organizations could face long prison terms.