The imprisoned politician Alexander Shestun has declared a dry hunger strike in the prison hospital.

On 8 April, Alexander Shestun, former head of the Serpukhov district near Moscow, began a dry hunger strike. He reported this himself in a letter published by RusNews.

Since 30 March, Shestun had been on a regular hunger strike. He wrote that he stopped drinking water on 7 April, and the next day officially informed Federal Penitentiary Service staff of the dry hunger strike.

The politician is currently in the Federal Penitentiary Service hospital in Torzhok, Tver region—a town northwest of Moscow. Through his hunger strike, he is demanding:

• A long visit with his children, which was disrupted at Correctional Colony No. 6 in Bezhetsk (a town in Tver region);
• Provision of a list of his submissions to oversight authorities, with the dates they were sent;
• Urgent medical treatment and recognition that denying such care is unlawful.

Shestun was told he was brought to the hospital for a medical review and that “we cannot treat you.” He has lost three teeth, and another is cutting into his mouth and tongue, causing bleeding.

“Three front teeth were knocked out by Federal Penitentiary Service staff in Tver region. One tooth was knocked out by the head of Detention Centre No. 1, Lebedev, in 2021; I had a prosthesis put in, but that too was knocked out by staff at Correctional Colony No. 6, Bezhetsk, during the use of force on 1 December 2025, along with the other two,” the politician writes.

According to Shestun, during his hunger strike he lost seven kilogrammes and fainted twice, injuring his face in the process. He also reminded readers that he has diabetes, “which worsens the damage to my health.” He is refusing vitamin C with glucose.

Shestun has previously gone on hunger strike in protest at violations of his rights in detention, and in December 2025 he slashed his wrists in a solitary confinement cell.

The last time he went on hunger strike was in early March, when he was held at Correctional Colony No. 6 in Bezhetsk. Federal Penitentiary Service officers disrupted his long family visit by sending him to the punishment cell (SHIZO). It is unclear when he ended that previous hunger strike.

The Free 120 campaign, which advocates for the release of seriously ill political prisoners, has appealed to Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, to the Tver region commissioner Nadezhda Yegorova, and to journalist Eva Merkachyova, a member of the Human Rights Council. Free 120 requests that conditions of Shestun’s detention and medical care be reviewed.

15 April According to his support group’s Telegram channel, Shestun was discharged from the prison hospital on 10 April. [link]

The politician said the hospital deputy director discharged him for “violating the therapeutic and security regime” by “failing to follow the prescribed diet (hunger striking) whilst having diabetes.”

Shestun was transferred to Detention Centre No. 1 in Tver, a city northwest of Moscow. According to him, during the transfer process, he had to drink water “otherwise I simply would not have made it to the prison van.” In the detention centre, he was put in a punishment cell for five days for drying towels on the bed rail. Shestun pointed out that the towel hooks were broken off.

He also reported new health problems: “In the central block, I went to the toilet with unbearable pain and passed blood clots in my urine. I continue to refuse food, total weight loss—16 kilogrammes.”

14 May Alexander Shestun reported that he was sent to the punishment cell for another ten days, as he wrote in a letter.

He was placed in solitary confinement after a visit to Detention Centre No. 1 by the first deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Tver region, Sergei Mefed. Shestun writes that on 22 April, Mefed “held a one-hour personal meeting” in his cell. The politician told Mefed that detention centre staff were not sending his complaints to oversight authorities, and that staff member Dmitry Vodoleev had told him directly that his submissions would not be sent and had threatened him.

“We’ll lock you in the old block, where no one will hear the screams from the use of electric shockers, or the blows to the kidneys and groin,”—the politician quoted this threat from the staff member in his letter.

According to Shestun, Mefed gave “an incoherent response” to this information. Detention centre staff still did not start forwarding his complaints to oversight bodies, and Shestun himself was placed in solitary confinement—which he believes was for “airing dirty laundry in public.”

The politician wrote about continuing his hunger strike: as of 4 May, his weight was 72 kg, down from 95 kg previously. According to Shestun, in the cold punishment cell his ankle and hand cramps became more severe.

He also reported that on 25 April, during a cell inspection, duty officer Pyotr Reshetov confiscated all his warm clothes, trampled his medication, and then dragged Shestun by the collar “like a calf to slaughter,” banging him against the doorframe.

On 12 May, Shestun’s support group’s Telegram channel reported that he was hospitalised in the regional hospital in Torzhok due to his serious condition following the hunger strike.

• Shestun has been imprisoned since 2018. In 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of fraud (part 4, article 159 of the Criminal Code), bribery (part 6, article 290), illegal business activity (article 289), and money laundering (paragraph “b,” part 4, article 174.1). Shestun has rejected all the charges and said his prosecution is politically motivated.
• Shortly before his arrest in 2018, the politician recorded a video address in which he spoke about threats from Moscow region governor Andrey Vorobyov. The governor demanded he prohibit a protest against the Lesnaya landfill and not run for another term. Shestun also publicly released a recording of a conversation with Ivan Tkachev, head of the FSB’s “K” Directorate, Andrey Yarin, head of the Presidential Domestic Policy Directorate, and Mikhail Kuznetsov, head of the Moscow region administration. In the recording, they tried to persuade him to resign.
• In 2022, he was convicted in a new case—for insulting a judge (part 2, article 297), insulting a public official (article 319), and making threats in connection with the administration of justice (part 1, article 296). In this case, Shestun admitted to the insults but not to the threat. His sentence was increased by a further six months.