‘FAINTED FROM HUNGER’

Jailed Putin Critic Navalny Collapses, Loses Contact With Legal Team

His press secretary said prison officials have banned his team from visiting him and that he has been absent from virtual court hearings.

Russian lawyer and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who collapsed in his prison cell last week and was put on an IV, has not been in touch with his team for three days, The Insider reported. Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, posted on Telegram that prison officials have banned his legal team from visiting him and that he has been absent from virtual court hearings. “When you consider that he was deprived of food, kept in a punishment cell with no ventilation, and that his walking time was reduced to a minimum, it looks like he fainted from hunger,” she wrote. “It’s the third day and we don’t know where he is. Also, before that, there were at least occasional letters from him, albeit censored, but all this week there have been no letters. No letters have been delivered to him either.” On Dec. 1, Navalny shared on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been handed new criminal charges under Article 214 of the Russian criminal code. The Insider noted that the penalty, which is called “vandalism motivated by hatred,” leads to forced labor or imprisonment for up to three years.