Imprisoned Kremlin foe: Navalny back in solitary confinement

According to his lawyer, Navalny, an opponent of the Kremlin, who was imprisoned in Russia, is again seriously ill. He lost a lot of weight, and the “unknown disease” is not being treated. Now Navalny has been transferred to a solitary cell again.

Despite complaints from his lawyers about severe health problems, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who is imprisoned in Russia, has once again been transferred to a solitary cell. The opposition politician’s team said he was only released from solitary confinement on Friday and sent there for another 15 days on Monday.

He also faced more harassment. So Navalny’s daily exit in the cramped prison yard was changed to 7 am. According to the information, there are also new restrictions on the purchase of food and writing letters from Navalny.

Penalty for seeking corruption?

The 46-year-old sees his new solitary confinement as punishment for investigating corruption in the prison authorities. The Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), which Navalny runs, had previously published an article about the exaggerated buying of food in Russian prisons.

“unknown disease”

According to his lawyer, his health is deteriorating. Lawyer Vadim Kobsev wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he was suffering from “an unknown disease that no one can treat.

The lawyer explained that an ambulance was called to Navalny’s cell at the end of the week because his stomach had gone bad. He added that his client had lost eight kilograms in the past two weeks, according to his medical record. Medicines sent by Navalny’s mother will be “returned” to her.

Kobsev said Navalny had “crises”. He believes it is possible that the authorities want his health to deteriorate “not suddenly, but gradually”.

In the criminal camp for two years

For more than two years, Navalny has been in particularly harsh prison conditions in a penal camp about 260 kilometers northeast of Moscow. He was sentenced by a Russian court for alleged fraud, but internationally the high-profile opponent of Putin is considered a political prisoner. Navalny narrowly escaped an assassination attempt due to the neurotoxin Novichok in 2020.