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65-year-old jeweller from Gatchina, Alexander Dotsenko, has been hospitalised after a heart attack. His lawyer, Sergei Podolsky, reported this on his channel on 14 February.

The lawyer said he received a call from an unknown number asking him to inform Dotsenko’s daughter that “he’s had a heart attack and is in intensive care.”

According to Podolsky, prison service staff had concealed what had happened to the convicted man from his family since 12 February. Before being hospitalised, he was held in penal colony-settlement No. 8 in St Petersburg.

After the heart attack, Dotsenko was in a critical condition and was placed in an induced coma. On 14 February, his daughter visited the hospital where he was taken. In the following days, Dotsenko’s support group reported that there was no change in his condition.

On 17 February, his level of sedation was reduced. The support group reported that Dotsenko was “slightly regaining consciousness,” but his heart condition was worsening. The next day Dotsenko’s health deteriorated further and he was again placed in an induced coma.

  • In July 2024, the jeweller was sentenced to three years in a penal colony-settlement. His wife, artist Anastasia Dyudyaeva, was sentenced in the same case to three and a half years in a penal colony-settlement. They were found guilty of inciting terrorism (Article 205.2, part 1, of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, the couple distributed flyers in Ukrainian in a Lenta supermarket. These included the phrase “Putin to the gallows”.
  • Dotsenko and Dyudyaeva were detained in January 2024. They have been in custody since then.