Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is suffering from a mysterious illness – his spokeswoman does not rule out that the Putin critic could have been poisoned again. The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now also very concerned about the deteriorating state of health – and is demanding Navalny’s immediate release.
“We call on the Russian authorities for his unconditional and immediate release and for urgent medical treatment,” the foreign ministry said on Twitter on Friday. The Council of Europe had also expressed great concern.
Was poison slowly administered to Navalny?
A spokeswoman for Navalny has warned of the possible poisoning of the imprisoned Russian opposition politician. “We don’t rule out Alexei Navalny being slowly poisoned at this point, slowly killed so that it attracts less attention,” Kira Jarmysch wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The 46-year-old suffers from a mysterious illness in custody that could be a slow-acting poison.
Serious poisoning in 2020
Former attorney Navalny narrowly survived an apparent poisoning attempt on a flight in Siberia in 2020 that used a nerve agent according to Western lab tests. Russia denies that the state tried to kill him.
Navalny had been treated in Germany for the poisoning, but voluntarily returned to Russia in 2021. He was arrested upon arrival and sentenced to several years in prison for violating probation and fraud. Navalny spoke of a politically motivated process.
Detention in penal colony 6 in Melekhovo
Navalny is considered a political prisoner and the fiercest critic of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin. Due to alleged fraud, he is being held in penal colony 6 in Melekhovo, about 260 kilometers northeast of Moscow – under particularly harsh prison conditions.
The opposition politician repeatedly hints that the current Russian prison system is practically identical to the Gulag (penal and labor camps in the Soviet Union). “It’s one and the same,” he summarizes. Everything is aimed at dehumanizing and harassing the detainees. There have never been any reforms, except for a single innovation: there is now a church in every penal colony.
Source: Krone
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