Kremlin critic Navalny ends hunger strike, but political prospects darken

Moscow: Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Friday he would start gradually ending 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 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.