Kremlin critic to end hunger strike, but political prospects darken

MOSCOW • Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has said he would start to gradually end a hunger strike after getting medical care, even as the political prospects for him and his movement darkened.

Sounding upbeat and emotional, the 44-year-old opposition politician said in an Instagram post on Friday that his hunger strike and the support he had received in Russia and the West had delivered "huge progress".

The worsening health of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent domestic opponent, and the authorities' initial failure to give him the treatment he demanded had triggered a Western diplomatic offensive designed to cajole Moscow to make concessions.

In the Instagram post published by his lawyers, Navalny said he was still demanding to be seen by a doctor of his own choosing - the original trigger for his hunger strike - and that he was losing feeling in parts of his legs and arms.

He said, however, that he had twice been seen by civilian doctors and undergone tests.

It would take 24 days to unwind the hunger strike which he launched on March 31, he added.

Supporters and friends reacted with relief, but sources close to the Kremlin and some activists said that his political movement - the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) - was on the verge of receiving a potential body blow from the authorities.

A Russian court is expected to rule this week on a request from a Moscow prosecutor to officially outlaw the FBK and Navalny's regional headquarters - the backbone of his movement - on the grounds that it is an extremist group.

Such a ruling, if it happens, would give the authorities the legal power to arrest and jail his supporters simply for being activists.

A source close to the Kremlin predicted Navalny's allies would struggle after the ruling.

"It will be their end as an agent of influence," said the source. "They will be forced to come up with new ways of communicating with their supporters."

The same source said the authorities were ready to jail some of Navalny's allies whom they regarded as the most radical.

Mr Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny's closest allies, declined to comment, as did other aides.

Mr Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speech writer, said: "The protest movement in Russia will be destroyed and beheaded to a large degree, but it won't disappear."

He added: "The people who don't like Putin will hardly start to like him after this. On the contrary, their anger will grow, but their outbursts will be more spontaneous and less organised."

Meanwhile, as tensions appeared to ease between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, Mr Daleep Singh, a top White House international economic aide said in an interview on Friday that the US sanctions imposed recently on Russia have generated results that were "pretty close" to Washington's hopes.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that it had begun returning military units from annexed Crimea to their permanent bases following a build-up of tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's border that had raised concerns about the risk of war.

REUTERS