Navalny ‘woken eight times a night’ as health worsens

The jailed Russian opposition leader could end up on crutches if he is denied treatment for acute pain in his back and one leg.

Alexei Navalny has written two letters of complaint to the head of Russia’s prison service. Picture: AFP

Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, could end up on crutches if he is denied treatment for acute pain in his back and one leg, his lawyers have warned.

After visiting Mr Navalny, 44, in a penal colony in the town of Pokrov on Thursday, Vadim Kobzev alleged that the authorities were pursuing “a deliberate strategy” to damage the health of the Kremlin critic, and that President Vladimir Putin was “directly responsible”.

Olga Mikhailova, a second lawyer, said that Mr Navalny’s right leg was “in terrible shape” and “practically doesn’t work”.

Mr Navalny’s team published two letters of complaint that the campaigner had written to the head of Russia’s prison service.

In one, he demanded his right to be examined by a civilian neurologist, saying that requests to the colony’s administrators had been denied. A prison doctor had prescribed him two ibuprofen tablets a day, while the result of an MRI scan had not been made available to him.

Mr Navalny said his condition was worsening. “It’s the classic picture of the development of a trapped nerve in the absence of the appropriate treatment,” he said. In the other letter, he said that he was being subjected to the “torture of sleeplessness” as he had been designated an escape risk. Eight times a night a warder wakes him, films him and says aloud that he is present, “despite the fact that I lie under a surveillance camera”.

Yulia Navalnaya, 44, the activist’s wife, said prison doctors could not be trusted and issued a demand for Mr Putin to release Mr Navalny, whom the President had “thrown in jail because he is afraid of political competition and wants to sit on the throne to the end of his life”. “This is personal revenge and punishment against a person, going on in front of ours eyes,” she added. “It must stop ­immediately.”

The Kremlin has faced condemnation over the treatment of Mr Navalny, who almost died in August after he was poisoned with a nerve agent, an attack ­allegedly sanctioned by Mr Putin.

The Times