In his first public appearance since ending a weeks-long hunger strike, jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny looked visibly thinner in a court hearing, which he attended via video link.
Thursday’s hearing was linked to Navalny’s appeal against a defamation conviction handed to him in February for allegedly insulting a World War II veteran. He was ordered to pay a fine of 850,000 rubles ($11,500) over the case.
During the hearing, he addressed his wife Yulia, who was in the courtroom.
“I was taken to a bania [Russian sauna] yesterday to look good today. I looked at myself – I’m a horrible skeleton. I’m in a horrible shape, as if I’m in seventh grade,” he said.