Supporters of Russian opponent Navalny arrested in front of his prison

(Pokrov) Russian police arrested dozens of Alexei Navalny’s supporters, including doctors, on Tuesday in front of his penal colony where they had gone to demand information on the opponent’s condition, patients and hunger strikers.

Ekaterina Anisimova
France Media

Concerned about the health of the main critic of the Kremlin, who according to his lawyer has lost five kilograms since he stopped eating on March 31, his supporters were found at the end of the morning in front of Camp No. 2 in Pokrov, 100 km east of Moscow.

They asked to see his manager and those in charge of monitoring Mr. Navalny’s health, as the latter said he had a fever, severe cough and back pain.

Unsurprisingly, the authorities did not comply with their request.

In the middle of the afternoon, three police trucks arrived in the mid-afternoon to interrogate the marchers, including the doctor and Alexei Navalny’s ally, opposition activist Anastasia Vasilieva.

Dozens of police officers in trucks took doctors in white coats and others, including at least one journalist, a CNN correspondent in Russia. The local police stated that nine people were arrested on charges of “disturbing public order.”

In the evening, m^I Vasilieva was released, according to her team.

The arrested journalist also announced on Twitter that he was released a few hours after his arrest.

According to information from the pro-Kremlin news outlet, Isvestia, on Monday evening, Mr. Navalny was transferred to a medical unit after his condition worsened, which is the beginning of a fever and cough.

However, no official confirmation has been released.

According to Mr. Navalny’s lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, the prison has only one organized doctor and there is no doctor. On Monday, she said that her client weighed 80 kilograms, compared to 93 when he arrived at this prison and 85 at the start of his hunger strike.

‘Unsanitary conditions and tuberculosis’

Concerns are growing about the 44-year-old anti-corruption activist as he barely escaped Novichok’s nerve gas poisoning last year that plunged him into a coma. He accuses the Kremlin, who denies his responsibility.

He returned to Russia in January after five months of convalescence in Germany, and was immediately arrested and sentenced to two and a half years in prison over an old fraud case he considers political.

Since his arrival at Pokrov prison, which is said to be one of the harshest prisons in Russia, his guards have been accused of “torturing him,” especially with sleep deprivation.

Alexeï Navalny speaks regularly on social networks without knowing how his messages get out of prison. Thus, on Monday, he said that an inmate at his barracks had been hospitalized for tuberculosis, the third in a few weeks.

He wrote: “Every prisoner prays to God not to end up here, because the inside is unhealthy, tuberculosis and lack of medicine.”

Since his return to Russia, his supporters have faced increasing repression.

Before her arrest on Tuesday, Anastasia Vasilieva, director of the Doctors Alliance, a union close to the opposition and within the reach of the authorities, said she wanted to “understand what was happening” at Camp Pokrov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ruled that Mr. Navalny should not benefit from “special circumstances,” as prison services confirmed at the end of March that he was receiving “all necessary medical assistance.”

His wife, Julia Navalna, posted a message on Instagram from the director of the prison colony in which he wrote that the opponent could not be taken to the hospital because the prison administration did not have his identity documents.

“Dear Director, do not forget that if the worst happens to Alexei, his death will affect your conscience and Putin’s conscience,” she said in a comment. the hat “.