In the statement posted to Facebook by the doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, along with a second doctor, Yaroslav Ashikhmin, said that hospital authorities had prevented them from properly visiting Navalny but he had been able to examine him through a window of the ward’s door. According to the statement, Navalny has swelling on and around his eyes, with puss leaking from his right eye. He also has a skin rash over his neck, back, chest and in his elbow.

“This is the result of the harmful effect of an unidentified chemical substance,” the statement posted by Vasilyeva said. The doctors noted that none of the five other inmates in Navalny’s cell had fallen ill and that Navalny has no allergies and has never previously suffered an allergic reaction.

“We cannot exclude toxic harm to the skin and mucous by an unknown chemical substance with the help of a certain ’third person’,” the doctors wrote in the statement, demanding that authorities take samples from Navalny and his bedding in the jail to test for toxins.