Worsening health status of Alexey Navalny

After almost 80 days of imprisonment at a penal colony, the health of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is deteriorating. Navalny started a hunger strike as a protest to Russian authorities denying him his request to seek medical care after experiencing severe cough and fever.

Navalny, who has stated that he won’t commit suicide in Russian prison – a well known ”modus operandi” and technique for Russian authorities to get rid of oppositional activists in prison – is still denied adequate medical care. The Navalny case is very similar to the well known case of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitskiy, who died in Russian prison under mysterious circumstances in 2009. Mr. Magnitskiy fought for rule of law in Russia for years and was arrested in 2008, after having called for judicial investigation into the cleptocracy of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

The death of Mr. Magnitskiy brought attention to the need in the U.S. and the European Union for new legislation targeting Russian authorities. Named after Sergei Magnitskiy, the Magnitskiy Acts make it possible for the European Union and the U.S. to continously sanction perpetrators of human rights and democracy around the world. 

The European Union and the Biden administration have condemned the Russian handling of Mr. Navalny’s case and called for his immediate release. The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation continues to follow the situation closely.