Allies raise alarm over health of hunger-striking Navalny

MOSCOW: Supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny are raising deep concerns about his decision to launch a hunger strike, saying they fear more damage to his already-fragile health.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, announced the hunger strike on Wednesday to demand proper medical treatment in prison. The 44-year-old is serving two-and-a-half years on old fraud charges in a penal colony east of Moscow. He was arrested when he returned to Russia in January from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from a near-fatal poisoning he blames on the Kremlin.

Navalny says he is suffering in prison from severe back pain and numbness in his legs and has only been given painkillers. His allies said his announcement of a hunger strike is no idle threat and they do not expect he will back down.

"Navalny has always taken such a step as a hunger strike extremely seriously," Ruslan Shaveddinov, a spokesman for the opposition figure, told AFP. "We are very concerned about his condition and that’s why we are demanding immediate access to doctors."

Navalny is still recovering from the poisoning last August, when he began howling in pain and collapsed on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in the city of Omsk.