JAILED RUSSIAN DISSIDENT Alexei Navalny is ill and without treatment has lost eight kilograms (nearly 18 pounds) in just over two weeks, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The 46-year-old was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he recovered from a poison attack the previous year he blamed on the Kremlin.

Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure, is now serving a nine-year sentence on embezzlement and other charges that his supporters see as a punishment for him challenging President Vladimir Putin.

“In the night of Friday to Saturday an ambulance was called to his cell because of a stomach illness that worsened,” lawyer Vadim Kobzev tweeted.

Navalny is suffering from “an unknown illness that no one is treating”, he said.

“According to his medical file, in the last 15 days he has lost eight kilos,” Kobzev wrote.

Medicine that Navalny’s mother sends him is “returned to her”, he said.

Navalny suffers from “crises”, Kobzev noted, not ruling out an attempt by the authorities to let his health “deteriorate, not suddenly, but progressively”.

“We will demand toxicology and radiology examinations,” he said.

At the start of the year Navalny said he had flu symptoms and no proper access to care, leading his supporters to claim the Kremlin was trying to kill him slowly.

Navalny has frequently criticised the Ukraine offensive from prison and called on Russians to protest.