Alexei Navalny’s doctor says the Putin critic ‘could die at any moment’

Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union, said on Twitter that 'action must be taken immediately'

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Picture: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, says his health is deteriorating rapidly and the Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.

Physician Yaroslav Ashikhmin said that test results he received from the 44-year-old’s family show him with sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys.