City medics agreed to hospitalize opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, who was arrested last week after an authorized rally and went on hunger strike, hours after ruling his condition was "not critical enough," his supporters said Monday.
Udaltsov, head of the unregistered Left Front movement, was detained for trying to pass the opposition's demands to the nearby building of the Office of Presidential Affairs following an anti-governmental rally dubbed "Day of Wrath."
The rally was sanctioned, but his attempt to deviate from the designated venue was ruled "disobedience of lawful police orders" and resulted in him being slapped with a 10-day arrest last Thursday.
The same day, Udaltsov went on a "dry" hunger strike, refusing food and water, to protest the ruling, Left Front web site? reported? Sunday.
A therapist in a city hospital refused to take him in on Sunday despite his chest pains, low blood sugar and "head noises," but his colleagues agreed to hospitalize Udaltsov hours later, the report said.
It was not immediately clear whether Udaltsov stopped his hunger strike after hospitalization. Repeated calls to Left Front's press service went unanswered Monday.
Last week's Day of Wrath — the first in a series of similar events to be sanctioned after months of bans ?€” saw some 300 people gather on Teatralnaya Ploshchad to protest governmental policies on commodity prices, communal services, science and education.?
On Saturday, Moscow's Tverskoi District Court threw out Udaltsov's appeal against his sentencing. Left Front claimed that the judge ignored evidence provided by the defense, including video records proving Udaltsov's innocence.
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