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Alexander Kashin, a disabled 32-year-old man who started a hunger protest on February 18 against the US State Department claiming $10 million in damages to be paid for his injuries in a car accident involving former US Consul General in Vladivostok Douglas Kent, had to stop his actions on February 29 after being taken to a local hospital.

“Having considered the condition of his health and the public attention paid to his case, we decided to put him under round-the-clock medical surveillance,” Olga Davydenko, Chief Doctor of the hospital, revealed in a telephone interview.

According to her, Kashin’s blood pressure was going down while his temperature was rising. Still, his condition was not at the critical stage, Davydenko noted. “He might have consumed some food during his hunger period,” she supposed.

After receiving medical treatment, Kashin on Sunday was released from the hospital. It is unclear at this point what the man’s next steps will be. The calls to his home telephone went unanswered on Monday.

Two days after starting his hunger protest, Kashin received an offer from the US State Department for a $100,000 humanitarian aid. Kashin refused the money saying, “the sum was inadequate even for a one-time rehabilitation program.”

Kashin was paralyzed from his chest down on October 27, 1998 when the consul’s car crashed into the cab with Kashin sitting in the back seat. For nine years he tried to sue Kent in US courts.

The Russian police ruled that the diplomat was responsible for the collision but Russian authorities failed to prosecute him criminally because of his diplomatic immunity. Kent left Russia soon after the accident. In August 2006, the case of Kashin versus Kent was officially closed, with a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the diplomat may not be sued by Kashin due to Kent’s diplomatic immunity.

“The state receiving diplomats guarantees that they should be protected by diplomatic immunity and according to the laws it can not start criminal proceedings against the diplomats. However, the state itself should bear responsibility before its citizens for the work and behavior of the diplomats,” a lawyer, Veniamin Chichayev, commented. “Therefore the case may be launched against the state which employed and received the diplomat who was involved in the incident. Kashin, who suffered from the actions of Douglas Kent who working at the time of the incident in Russia, may appeal with his claims to the state of Russia,” he suggested.