(Vladimir) Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who is on hunger strike, is extremely weak and ill-treated in a hospital for TB prisoners, and his lawyers were alarmed on Tuesday, who demanded his transfer to Moscow after his visit.
The Kremlin opponent, who stopped eating three weeks ago, has been in a hospital prison unit in Vladimir, northeast of the Russian capital, since Sunday evening. His relatives say he is in danger of dying at any time.
In an Instagram post, posted online after visiting his councils, the most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin described himself as “a skeleton wandering around in a dungeon.”
His lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, told reporters, “He is very weak and has difficulty sitting and speaking,” stressing that he “is not receiving appropriate medical assistance.”
And it demanded that he be transferred immediately “to a civilian hospital” in Moscow “to prevent him from dying.”
A few hours earlier, several doctors supporting the opponent were removed from hospital without being able to see him, as has been the case every time since his imprisonment in early March.
In a statement to Agence France-Presse, Alexei Navalny’s personal physician and opposition union leader Anastasia Vasilieva condemned her “extremely disrespectful position”, referring to her “medical duty to help a patient.”
Western pressure on Moscow remains strong, but to no avail, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying on Tuesday that she is “very concerned” and said she is working to ensure he receives proper care.
The interested party thanked Instagram for the “tremendous support” it is receiving “from Russia and the whole world.”
Alexei Navalny stopped eating on March 31 to protest his conditions of detention, in particular accusing the prison administration of refusing to see a doctor because of his back injury and loss of sensitivity in his legs, legs and arms.
He was arrested in January, upon his return to Russia after five months of convalescence in Germany, on charges of poisoning, accused by Vladimir Putin.
He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for an old fraud charge which he considers to be political.
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On Monday, when announcing that he was admitted to a hospital for tuberculosis patients, prison services confirmed that Mr. Navalny’s health condition was “satisfactory”.
One of his relatives, Leonid Volkov, condemned the transfer “to a concentration and torture camp, not to a hospital”.
For her part, his mother, Lyudmila, considered the penal colony in which he was hospitalized “worse” than the previous one.
The fate of the opponent, and more generally relations between Brussels and Moscow, was on the program of the meeting of the 27 foreign ministers on Monday.
The chief diplomat of the European Union, Josep Borrell, held the Russian authorities “responsible” for Alexei Navalny’s health.
For its part, the European Court of Human Rights directed questions to Moscow, in which it feared whether the conditions of his detention were “compatible with his right to life.”
The Kremlin, in its rightful place, continues to condemn Western criticism as interference.
Supporters of the opponent called for protests across Russia on Wednesday, the day of Vladimir Putin’s annual speech. According to them, the mobilization will take place in at least 106 cities despite the ban by the authorities.
Searches were also conducted at the Navalny Organization’s offices in Krasnoyarsk (Siberia) and the Movement Coordinator in Belgorod (south of Moscow). Other executives were imprisoned in several towns.
The Ministry of Interior immediately warned that it would take “necessary measures” against unauthorized demonstrations.
Last Friday, the prosecution announced its intention to ban Mr. Navalny’s anti-corruption fund on charges of “extremism”.
He said in a statement on Tuesday that NBK was “destabilizing the social and political situation.” […] There were calls for violent measures to be taken “and an attempt to involve minors” based on the orders of “various centers located abroad.”
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