In recent days, the health conditions of Alexei Navalny, the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, would be very serious due to an alleged poisoning, some of his collaborators have said (including his lawyer Vadim Kobzev, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh and activist Ruslan Shaveddinov, who is among the main members of Navalny’s organization). The poisoning would have taken place in the maximum security prison of Melekhovo, about 250 kilometers east of Moscow, where Navalny has been imprisoned for some time.
Ruslan Shaveddinov, who lives in exile in Lithuania, told the Guardian that there has been no news of Navalny for about a week, i.e. since 8 April. An ambulance had been sent to the prison that night after Navalny had had very sharp stomach pains. According to Shaveddinov, in the previous days he had been “slowly poisoned” through the food that was served to him. On the night of the ambulance, Navalny had been in solitary confinement for 15 days.
Navalny has been in prison since January 2021, when he was charged and then convicted of violating his probation, after returning to Russia following a poisoning attempt probably organized by the Russian regime itself. In March 2022 he was then sentenced to another 9 years in prison for fraud and embezzlement, charges he and many others considered specious and politically motivated.
