Russian opposition leader Navalny quits hunger strike after more than three weeks

MOSCOW.- Detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny reported this Friday via social networks that stopped his hunger strike after more than three weeks. Russian opposition doctors urged him on Thursday to end his hunger strike, which began on March 31, as soon as possible to protest against his conditions of detention.

In a message sent via his account on the social network Twitter, Navalny has justified that the words of the doctors “seem to him worthy of attention” and specified that he will continue to require a doctor’s visit because he has feeling of loss in your legs and arms, the main demand of the opponent when the hunger strike began. “In view of these developments and circumstances, I am starting to end my hunger strike,” he wrote.

Cardiologist Yaroslav Ashijmin and other doctors said in a statement that they asked the main opponent of the Russian president, Vladimir Poutine, “Stop the hunger strike immediately to save his life and health.” Doctors, including her personal physician Anastasia Vasilieva, explained that they had access to the results of tests carried out on Navalny since her transfer earlier in the week to a hospital for tuberculosis prisoners.

“Maintaining the fast can significantly damage the health of Alexei Navalny and can lead to the saddest result – death,” they added.

The opponent would present “symptoms of kidney failure, severe neurological symptoms and severe hyponatremia” which can lead to more serious illnesses, they stressed. “If the hunger strike continues even for a short time, unfortunately we will have no one to heal,” warned the doctors, who asked the authorities to access Navalny and transfer him to a hospital in Moscow, where he will be able to receive “properly speaking. To care”.

The 44-year-old opponent is currently in a center in Vladimir, 180 kilometers east of Moscow, where he was transferred from his penal colony of Pokrov, in the same region. The anti-corruption activist was arrested in January on his return to Russia after spending five months recovering in Germany, where he recovered from poisoning he attributes to the Kremlin. Moscow rejects the accusations. Amid protests from pro-Navalny demonstrators calling for his health, Western countries are demanding his release.

AP and AFP agencies

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