Updated

Three Russian opposition figures have called on six activists in Siberia to end their now 12-day hunger strike after one of them was hospitalized.

The activists in Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, stopped eating to protest the barring of the opposition coalition from upcoming elections to the regional legislature.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on all of them to end their strike for the sake of their health. Joining Saturday's call were former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, both now in opposition.

Navalny urged Novosibirsk opposition campaign chief Leonid Volkov to join him instead in organizing a protest in Moscow on Sept. 13, the day of local elections all around Russia.

The elections are seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2016 vote for national parliament.