Jailed Russian lawyer denied hospitalisation after collapsing with dangerously high blood pressure

Russian lawyer Maria Bontsler, who gained a public profile defending political prisoners before being arrested herself in Kaliningrad in May 2025, lost consciousness on Tuesday evening and lay in her cell without treatment until morning, RusNews reports.

Bontsler's lawyer, Ilya Sidorov, told the legal advocacy group Slovo Zashite that he was able to see his client on Wednesday. She told him that the fainting spell happened around 7:30pm the previous evening and that she remained unconscious until morning. Medical staff recorded her blood pressure at a dangerously high 210/100, but an ambulance crew declined to hospitalise her.

“She's trying to recover, but it's getting harder and harder,” Sidorov said. “The particular situation in Kaliningrad has become clear... Many people say the examinations done at the regional hospital can't be trusted. And the most recent report from there claims she's ‘improving,’” Sidorov said.

He added that Bontsler's defence team is now filing paperwork to arrange additional paid medical examinations and treatment at a cardiology centre.

“Last time she had readings that high, she was hospitalised. This time, she wasn't. We believe the ambulance crew was ordered not to hospitalise her,” Sidorov said.

The Russian authorities accuse Bontsler of corresponding via Telegram with an officer of Ukraine's SBU security service and passing along information about Russian security personnel that she had learned through her legal work. Her defence argues that the supposed Ukrainian agent may in fact have been an operative of Russia's own security services, and says the case rests on nothing more than the claim that she “had the opportunity” to pass along sensitive information.

Since being jailed, Bontsler has repeatedly complained of torturous detention conditions and a lack of medical care.