Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says he's lost 80 per cent of sight in his right eye after an assailant threw green liquid in his face last week, but could not get treatment abroad because of a travel ban.
Navalny organised the biggest anti-government protests in years in March, and has become the most prominent opposition challenger to President Vladimir Putin, who is widely expected to run for what would be a fourth presidential term in March 2018.
A 40-year-old former lawyer who has made a name for himself inside Russia investigating the finances of top government officials, Navalny was jailed for 15 days for his part in the March protests. He is calling for more on June 12.
Opinion polls suggest he does not pose a serious threat to Putin at the ballot box, but his muckraking investigations have angered the Kremlin. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the target of one, earlier this month dismissed Navalny as one of several "political conmen".
On Thursday, a man whom Navalny's supporters have identified as a member of a radical ultra-nationalist group threw green liquid, apparently antiseptic, in his face in Moscow. Footage of the attack, the second time Navalny had suffered such an assault in as many months, was shown on a pro-government TV channel.
Navalny said in a statement on Tuesday that he had suffered a chemical burn to his right eye and that a doctor had told him she was sure the antiseptic must have been mixed with something else.
"For now the loss of sight is not irreversible," said Navalny. "I'm being actively treated and there's hope I will be healed."
But he said he was unable to get treatment in a specialised clinic in Switzerland or Spain because of a foreign travel ban imposed over what he says is a politically-motivated embezzlement conviction.
