Vladimir Putin’s longtime critic Alexei Navalny is in a deteriorating physical condition 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 to a “totally illegal” penal colony last month to serve a two-and-a-half-year sentence for embezzlement charges that human rights defenders have described as fabricated and politically motivated.
The dissident was arrested after returning from Germany, where doctors said he was twice poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Navalny began experiencing severe back pain last week along with a numbness in his legs that left him unable to stand up, Ally Leonid Volkov said. The political prisoner said doctors only gave him two ibuprofens in response to the pain.
Navalny’s lawyers said they were not allowed to visit him for a daily meeting scheduled for Wednesday due to “unspecified security measures,” and were concerned that prison administrators were trying to cover up the severity of his illness.
Prison officials did not respond to any requests for comment.
“Given all the circumstances we know, the severe deterioration of his health can only cause extreme concern,” Volkov said.
News of the notoriously strict prison comes a day after protesters announced plans to stage the largest anti-Kremlin protest in modern history this spring, in a bid to free Navalny.
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 run by Navalny’s followers documented his health problems on Wednesday, according to The Guardian.
An earlier publication quoting a letter from the prisoner described Pokrov’s IK-2 penal colony as a “true concentration camp 100 km from Moscow” and compared the atmosphere to George Orwell’s 1984.
In another prison letter posted on Instagram this week, Navalny compared his fellow inmates to the Star Wars storm soldiers, The Guardian said.
“They have cigarettes in their teeth. Instead of laser rifles, they have metal levers, ”he said. “But wherever they are, at 6.05 they listen to the national anthem, at 6.10 they do the exercises and at 6.30 they put the porridge in the metal bowls and pour sweet tea into the metal cups. May the force accompany you.”
With publishing cables