Putin-foe Alexei Navalny has lost 18lbs with mystery ailment as aides fear he is being poisoned

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, is struggling with a mysterious ailment in prison that has caused him to lose nearly 18 pounds in just over two weeks, his spokesman said.

The health problems have led to fears that the Kremlin dissident is slowly being poisoned while held in a brutal, heavily guarded penal colony in Melekhovo, some 150 miles east of Moscow.

Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, announced the serious concerns about his health, adding that he was back in a punishment cell after a few days in regular detention.

Navalny is said to have fallen ill last Friday when he was taken out of the punishment cell after 15 days and placed in a conventional cell.

An ambulance was called early Saturday due to acute abdominal pain, but Navalny was not diagnosed, one of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, wrote on Twitter after visiting him in prison.

Health problems have led to fears that the Kremlin dissident is slowly being poisoned

Navalny gained notoriety more than a decade ago for mocking President Vladimir Putin. Pictured: Putin gives a speech at a concert to mark the Day of Astronautics at the Kremlin State Palace in Moscow, April 12, 2023

“The lawyer says that an ambulance was called for Alexey on the night from Friday to Saturday because of acute abdominal pain. No one treats him and they don’t even tell him the diagnosis. He has lost 8 kilos (!) in the last 15 days in the punishment cell,” Yarmysh said in a message on Twitter.

When Alexey asks what he’s sick with, the prison doctor mockingly replies that it’s ‘just spring and everyone’s having exacerbations’.

She added: “We don’t rule out the possibility that he could have been poisoned all this time in prison with something that is slowly but surely deteriorating his health.”

Yarmysh also said this was the thirteenth time Navalny had been placed in a punishment cell.

A former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago for mocking President Vladimir Putin’s elite and making allegations of widespread corruption, Navalny has long predicted that Russia could face seismic political turmoil.

In 2020, he survived an apparent attempt to poison him while on flight in Siberia, with what Western lab tests said was a nerve agent. Russia denies that the state tried to kill him.

He was treated in Germany for that poisoning, but voluntarily returned to Russia in 2021, where he was arrested upon arrival and imprisoned in a fraud case he calls politically motivated.

Yarmysh also said this was the thirteenth time Navalny had been placed in a punishment cell. Pictured: Navalny takes part in a rally marking the fifth anniversary of the assassination of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, Moscow, February 29, 2020

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a Cosmonaut Day event at the Kremlin State Palace on April 12, 2023

The news comes after a video documentary about Navalny won an Oscar last month.

The documentary portrays his career fighting official corruption, his near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 that he blames on the Kremlin, his five-month recovery in Germany, and his return to Moscow in 2021, where he was taken into custody.

He was later sentenced to two and a half years in prison and was convicted of other charges last year and received an additional nine years in prison.

Navalny has faced relentless pressure from Russian authorities and is in and out of isolation in a small punishment cell. He is allowed to write and receive letters and may occasionally visit lawyers.

German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said Berlin took note of reports of Navalny’s deteriorating health “with great concern”.

She added that Germany wants “the inhumane treatment he is apparently undergoing in prison to be lifted” and that Russian authorities ensure he has access to medical treatment and is released.