Navalny Camp Plans Protests Across Russia as Health Fears Worsen Bloomberg 6 hrs ago Henry Meyer
(Bloomberg) Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s condition has worsened sharply after a 2 1/2 week-long hunger strike, prompting supporters to say he could die in days and announce a nationwide protest.
“Alexey is dying now. Given his condition, it’s a matter of days,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Facebook. Navalny’s supporters called for demonstrations across Russia on April 21 in a blog post.
Anastasia Vasilieva, who heads the Alliance of Doctors union that is backed by Navalny and who is also his doctor, posted a copy of his blood-test results showing what she said were “critical” levels of potassium. “This signifies kidney failure, which can lead at any time to a severe disruption to his heartbeat” including the possibility of heart failure, she said on Twitter.
Reuters reported that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The announcement comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries, with Moscow amassing military forces near their mutual border and in the Russia-annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea.
Relations between Kyiv and Moscow have been strained since Russia forcibly annexed Crimea in 2014 and began providing military, economic, and political support to separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine. More than 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
More than 25 Ukrainian soldiers have been reported killed since the start of the year, compared with 50 in all of 2020, when fighting in the conflict subsided as a new cease-fire deal came into force in July.
Xinhua world news summary at 1500 GMT, April 17 parisguardian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from parisguardian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.