Putin Enemy Ill After Suspected Poisoning

According to a spokesman, imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reportedly been transferred back into a punishment cell after a few days in standard confinement due to his failing health following a new suspected poisoning. He lost 18 pounds in just two weeks.

Mr. Navalny, 46, reportedly fell ill on Friday after being transferred from the cell where he was being punished to a more standard cell, as reported by Anna Veduta, vice president of Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation Washington, DC.

On Monday, Mr. Navalny announced on Twitter that he had been remanded to another punishment cell for another 15 days.

German government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann expressed “great alarm” about reports of Mr. Navalny’s poor health.

Germany, she continued, asks that “the horrific treatment that he is supposedly undergoing in prison be lifted” and that Russian authorities ensure he gets access to medical treatment and be released.

After seeing Mr. Navalny in prison, one of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, tweeted that an ambulance had been called early Saturday morning due to severe stomach problems but that Mr. Navalny had not been diagnosed.

Ms. Veduta claims that they think Navalny is slowly being administered modest amounts of poison” in unmarked pills.

Mr. Navalny was the subject of a documentary that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature last month.

The documentary follows him as he fights corruption in government from when he was a young man until he was arrested in Moscow in 2021. The arrest followed a near-fatal poisoning with a nerve toxin in 2020 that he blames on the Kremlin. 

The film follows him through his five months of rehabilitation in Germany and his return to Moscow.

After being found guilty of more offenses the following year, he received an additional nine-year term. This was after he received a two-and-a-half-year prison term for his initial crime.

The Russian authorities have relentlessly harassed Mr. Navalny, and he has spent time inside and outside solitary confinement, also known as a punishment cell.

He is open to correspondence and occasional visits from attorneys.