Putin ‘killing Alexei Navalny slowly’ with brutal prison regime

Allies of Alexei Navalny accuse Russian president Vladimir Putin of ‘killing him slowly’ with a brutal prison regime.

Alexei Navalny as he appeared by video link for a court appearance last year. Allies claim his health has deteriorated badly. Picture: AP/The Times

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said he is being moved to a harsh solitary confinement cell for six months as his allies accused President Vladimir Putin of “killing him slowly”.

Navalny, 46, was arrested two years ago when he returned to Moscow from Berlin, where he had spent six months recovering from a near-deadly poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent that is believed to have been carried out by Russian agents.

He was jailed for nine years after being convicted of fraud charges that critics said were revenge for his expose of Kremlin corruption.

“I haven’t had any visits for eight months and yesterday I was told that I’d be transferred to a cell-type facility for the maximum possible term of six months,” Navalny said in a message that was passed on to his supporters and posted on Twitter.

“No visits are allowed there. This means more than a year without a visit. Even maniacs and serial killers serving life sentences have the right to receive a visit, but I don’t.”

His allies say his health has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks. Vadim Kobzev, Navalny’s lawyer, said the opposition leader was suffering severe stomach pains and that he had lost 7kg in weight.

He said prison doctors were treating him with “huge doses” of inappropriate antibiotics and accused the Kremlin of seeking to “destroy Navalny’s health”.

“Putin tried to kill Navalny quickly,” Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, wrote on social media. “Now he is killing him slowly and torturing him.”

Navalny is being held at the maximum-security IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, 185km east of Moscow. He has spent more than 100 days in punishment cells over the past six months for supposed infractions of prison rules, such as failing to do up his top button and washing at the wrong time.

Almost 500 Russian doctors signed an open letter to Putin last month demanding that Navalny be given access to satisfactory healthcare.

Navalny alleged at the time that prison officials had deliberately placed him in cells with inmates suffering from an infectious illness. He looked gaunt when he appeared at a court hearing via a video link last week.

Navalny has spoken out regularly against the invasion of Ukraine, calling it a crime and urging Russians to protest. His allies fled Russia in 2020 after the Kremlin accelerated its brutal crackdown on his anti-corruption group, which Moscow has designated as an “extremist” organisation.

The Times