Alexei Navalny allies call for mass protests to save his life
Allies of Alexei Navalny have called on his supporters to stage mass protests on Wednesday in towns and cities all across Russia, amid a dire warning that the jailed Kremlin critic and opposition leader is now dangerously ill and could die “at any minute”.
Navalny said in a post on his official Instagram account on Friday that he is being threatened with force-feeding as he continues a hunger strike. Navalny said Friday that his blood test results show his health is deteriorating.
He has been diagnosed with two hernias and is losing feeling in both hands; one of his lawyers, Olga Mikhailova, said in an interview with Russian media last week.
He is on a hunger strike in protest of prison officials refusing to grant him access to proper medical care. The Kremlin said this week that it would not give him special treatment.
Navalny’s team said the situation had got so desperate that there was no time to delay. They had previously said street protests would resume once they reached 500,000 signatures in support; with the current tally about 50,000 shorts.
In a video posted on Navalny’s YouTube channel; his deputies Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov said Navalny’s health had deteriorated so dramatically; that a mass public display was the only way to save him. Volkov urged citizens to gather at 7 pm on Wednesday in squares across the country.
The appeal sets up a showdown between Navalny’s followers and Vladimir Putin, who is due to deliver his annual state of the nation address at the same time. In January the Kremlin used brutal force to break up pro-Navalny street protests, with thousands of people arrested.
Furthermore, The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit on Friday with Moscow City Court seeking to label jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation known as FBK and his headquarters as “extremist” organizations.
If approved, the move by prosecutors could have serious consequences for Navalny’s team in Russia. In Russian law, “extremist” organizations could be banned and liquidated, and activists who continue to work with them possibly face prison terms of up to 10 years.
The statement added the goal of the opposition organizations is to encourage “color revolutions,” a reference to popular uprisings in former Soviet republics which Russia considers to have been supported by Western governments.
