Having started more than three weeks ago, his hunger strike now puts him in danger of death.

"As treating doctors, we appeal to Alexeï Navalny and ask him to immediately stop his hunger strike in order to preserve his life and his health", indicated the five signatory doctors in a letter published by the media of opposition Mediazona.

The call comes in the wake of protests across Russia calling for the release of the 44-year-old opponent, who was transferred earlier this week to a hospital for prisoners with tuberculosis from the penal colony where he is imprisoned.

Alexeï Navalny had stopped eating three weeks ago to protest against his conditions of detention, accusing the prison administration of depriving him of access to a doctor while he suffered from a double herniated disc.

While he already suffered from back pain and loss of sensitivity in his legs and hands before his hunger strike, his condition deteriorated, with the opponent describing himself as a "skeleton wandering through a cell. ".

His lawyers, who were able to see him, judged him "very weak".

"Severe neurological symptoms"

Doctors, including Anastassia Vassilieva, the personal doctor of the Russian opponent, said they had access to the results of the analyzes carried out by Alexeï Navalny since his transfer earlier this week to a hospital for tuberculosis prisoners. "Continuing to fast can significantly damage the health of Alexei Navalny and can lead to the saddest result - death," continue the doctors. They highlight in particular in the opponent "symptoms of renal failure, severe neurological symptoms and severe hyponatremia" which, according to them, can lead to even more serious illnesses.

"If the hunger strike continues even for a minimal time, unfortunately we will soon have no one to heal," they alarmed, calling on the authorities to give them access to Alexeï Navalny and transfer him to a Moscow hospital, where he can receive "appropriate care".

Considerable damage risks

The main critic of the Kremlin is currently in an establishment in Vladimir, 180 km east of Moscow, from where he was transferred from his penal colony of Pokrov in the same region, known as one of the harshest from Russia.

His relatives are all the more worried about his condition since he barely survived last year a poisoning that had plunged him into a coma, and of which he accuses the Kremlin.

Thousands of his supporters gathered in many Russian cities on Wednesday to call for his release, protests that resulted in more than 1,900 arrests.

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