Activists for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Sunday called for massive protests in the heart of Moscow and St. Petersburg as Mr. Navalny’s health reportedly is deteriorating severely while on hunger strike.
On Saturday, a doctor said test results that he received from Mr. Navalny’s family showed sharply elevated levels of potassium, which could lead to cardiac arrest, and signs of kidney failure.
“Our patient could die at any moment,” said the doctor, Yaroslav Ashikhmin.
Leonid Volkov, a top strategist for Mr. Navalny, said the demonstrations were called on short notice for Wednesday because “his life hangs in the balance.
The 44-year-old Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most visible and persistent critic, started a hunger strike more than three weeks ago to protest prison authorities’ refusal to allow him to be seen by a private doctor for diagnosis of severe back pain and loss of feeling in his legs.