Russia: Navalny being transferred to hospital

MOSCOW Amid concern from western countries over his health, prison authorities on Monday decided to transfer Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who is on a hunger strike, to a hospital. The hospital specializes in monitoring convicts on hunger strike, the country's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said. It added that Navalny's health condition is "satisfactory," he is visited by a physician daily, and receives vitamins upon his consent. The US, EU, and the UK have expressed concern over Navalny’s "deteriorating" health, with Washington threatening with “consequences” in case he dies. Commenting on the remarks by US Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who said that Russia will be held accountable by the international community, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not react to such statements. “The state of health of convicts and prisoners on the territory of the Russian Federation cannot and should not be a topic of their [Western countries'] interest,” he said. Navalny was imprisoned for a parole violation in February. He was convicted in 2014 of fraud and embezzlement and was on six-year probation, requiring to report to police twice a month. In 2020, after his alleged poisoning with a nerve agent, the condition to appear before the police was put on hold for the duration of his treatment in Germany. According to the FSIN, after Navalny's treatment was over, he did not show up for more than three months and did not notify about his whereabouts. He did not even provide any objective reasoning for his non-appearance, it said. Upon his return to Russia on Jan. 17, Navalny was arrested at the airport, and his suspended sentence was replaced with a 2.5-year full custodial sentence. The EU has imposed sanctions on four Russian high-ranking officials over Navalny’s arbitrary arrest, prosecution, and sentencing under its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.