KREMLIN CRITIC ALEXEI NAVALNY ENDS HUNGER STRIKE

Fri 23 April 2021:

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has said he is ending his hunger strike after being seen by medics and warned he was putting his life at risk if he continued.

Navalny began refusing food on 31 March to demand better medical care.

He said he had twice been seen by civilian doctors and “given the progress and circumstances, I am ending my hunger strike”.

The process would be gradual, he added in an Instagram post.

But on the 24th day of his hunger strike Navalny said he would stop refusing food after getting examined by non-prison medical staff, who told him to start eating again or face death.

He wrote on social media: “Thanks to the huge support of good people across the country and around the world, we have made huge progress.”

“I am not withdrawing my request to allow the necessary doctor to see me – I am losing feeling in areas of my arms and legs, and I want to understand what it is and how to treat it, but considering the progress and all the circumstances, I am beginning to come out of the hunger strike,” he wrote.

Thousands of Navalny’s supporters protested in cities across Russia on Wednesday to demand he get proper care and be freed and the United States had warned Moscow it would face “consequences” if he died in jail.