Vladimir Putin’s longtime critic, Alexei Navalny, is deteriorating as he remains in an isolated Russian prison camp, according to allies and lawyers who were due to meet with him on Wednesday.
The 44-year-old was sent last month to a “completely illegal” criminal colony to serve a two-and-a-half-year sentence on charges of embezzlement that human rights lawyers called fabricated and politically motivated. .
The dissident was arrested after returning from Germany, where doctors said he was twice poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Navalny started having severe back pain last week, along with a numbness in his leg that left him unable to stand, said ally Leonid Volkov. The political prisoner said that only two Ibuprofen were given to the doctors in response to the pain.
Navalny’s lawyers said they were not allowed to visit him on Wednesday for a scheduled daily meeting due to “unspecified security measures”, expressing concern that prison administrators were trying to cover up the severity of his illness.
Prison officials did not respond to a request for comment.
“Given all the circumstances we know, the deteriorating health of his health can only cause extreme concern,” Volkov said.
News of the notorious strict prison comes a day after protesters announced plans to stage the largest anti-Kremlin protest in modern history this spring, under pressure for Navalny’s release.
Kremlin officials warn that the demonstrations are illegal and claim that Navalny is a puppet sent by Western countries to destabilize Moscow.
An Instagram account managed by Navalny’s supporters documented his health problems on Wednesday, according to The Guardian.
An earlier post quoting a letter from the prisoner described the IK-2 penal colony in Pokrov as “a real concentration camp 100 km from Moscow” and compared the atmosphere to George Orwell in 1984.
In another prison letter posted on Instagram this week, Navalny compared his fellow detainees to Star Wars combat soldiers, The Guardian said.
“They have cigarettes in their teeth. Instead of laser rifles, they have metal bars “, he would have written. “But wherever they are, at 6.05 they listen to the national anthem, at 6.10 they do their exercises, and at 6.30 they put the porridge in their metal bowls and pour sweet tea into their metal cups. May the force be with you. “
With Post threads