Russia: Questions about Navalny’s health condition

Moscow, Russia | Alex Navalny’s relatives were concerned Thursday about the rival’s health because they were unable to meet him in his penitentiary colony, and this happened despite Russian prison services confirming his condition was “satisfactory”.

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Leonid Volkov, one of Mr. Navalny’s closest associates, did not believe the authorities’ statements.

“I will translate the language of the police into Russian: as we expected, Navalny was in the hospital, so the lawyers were not allowed in yesterday,” he commented. On Twitter on Thursday.

“A very serious thing is going on,” he added.

On Wednesday, Mr Navalny’s lawyer sounded the alarm and said the 44-year-old blogger and anti-corruption activist had no access, having recently complained about “severe back pain” and failed. Feel his legs.

The latter survived a poisoning last year, he blamed on the Kremlin. And in 2020 the lawyer ruled that there might be a connection between her current problems and her intoxication.

Prison services (FSIN) in the Vladimir region near Moscow, where rival prisoners are serving sentences, responded Thursday morning that medical tests had been carried out “at the request of prisoners” and that Alex Navalny’s condition was “stable and satisfactory”.

Not enough in the eyes of rival friends, his lawyers tried again Thursday afternoon to meet him. So far without success and without explanation.

Ibuprofen only

He was sentenced in February to two-and-a-half years in prison in a fraud case dating back to 2014 that NGOs and many Western capitals considered politically imprisoned in a penal colony known since early March as a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Wednesday, his lawyer Olga Mikhailova told AFP that the neurologist had tested the opponent for his back pain and leg problems, but that he had only prescribed the anti-inflammatory ibuprofen.

Leonid Volkov felt that the prison administration was trying to cover up the fact that the opponent had been transferred to the hospital.

Since Pokrov’s arrival in early March, Alexei Navalny has been posting two messages on Instagram with a tone of ridicule and optimism.

At first, he wrote that he was “surprised” by the prison administration: “I did not think that a concentration camp could be built 100 kilometers from Moscow.”

Second, he likened his routine to that of the soldiers of the Star Wars saga, due to the rigorous discipline he performed with physical exercises in the yard and quickly marching on the site.

He was arrested in January after returning to Moscow after a five – month recovery in Germany, where he is recovering from his poisoning, and Alex Navalny was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

He suddenly fell into a coma in Siberia last August. After he moved to Germany, several European laboratories estimated that he had taken poison using the Soviet-designed neurological agent Novichok.

But Moscow has always rejected these resolutions, which support the theory of assassination attempt dictated by Russian authorities. No investigation has been launched in Russia.

Alexei Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of plotting the assassination attempt, which the Kremlin has repeatedly condemned.

Following his imprisonment, he imposed sanctions targeting senior Russian officials from the European Union, the United States and Canada.

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