Amnesty International, meanwhile, described the alleged poisoning as “undeniably similar to incidents involving other hardline critics of the Russian authorities,” including the politician Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. and Pussy Riot punk band producer Pyotr Verzilov.
“Navalny himself became seriously ill previously during his administrative arrest a year ago. None of these incidents were investigated,” the group added.
In July last year, Navalny was hospitalized from a detention center, where he was held on administrative arrest after organizing peaceful demonstrations. Authorities said Navalny had suffered an allergic reaction, although the politician himself believes he was poisoned.
Navalny, like many other lawmakers in Russia, has frequently been detained by authorities and harassed by pro-Kremlin groups. In 2017, he was attacked by several men as they threw anti-septic in his face, damaging one eye.
A staunch critic of Putin, Navalny had campaigned to challenge the president in the 2018 election, but he was blocked from standing for office.
“If true, the suspected poisoning of Russian oppositionist Aleksey #Navalny represents a grave moment for Russia, and the Russian people deserve to see all those involved held to account,” Rebecca Ross, spokesperson at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, said in a Twitter post on Friday.
“Our thoughts are with his family,” she added.
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/21/navalnys-doctors-refuse-to-let-putin-critic-leave-russian-hospital.html
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