Alexei Navalny’s doctors were again denied access yesterday to the jailed Kremlin critic, despite growing concern over the hunger-striking Russian opposition figure’s failing health.
A team of medics has been attempting to see the 44-year-old since early this month, after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken opponent launched a hunger strike on March 31 demanding proper medical treatment for a litany of ailments.
Nearly three weeks into the hunger strike, his doctors over the weekend warned that Navalny’s health was failing so rapidly he could die at “any minute,” as the US threatened Russia with “consequences” in the event of his death.
Photo: AP
Russia’s prison service, which has repeatedly prevented Navalny’s doctors from visiting him, on Monday said that he had been moved from his penal colony in the Vladimir region about 100km east of Moscow to a medical facility at another colony in the same region.
A team of physicians — including Navalny’s personal doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva — yesterday morning traveled to the new colony and was once again barred from seeing him.
However, it was told to try again later in the day.
“This is super disrespectful to people who came to fulfil their human duty, a medical duty to help a patient,” Vasilyeva said outside the colony.
“We are talking now only about health and life,” she said.
Navalny’s lawyers also arrived at the penal colony yesterday and were allowed in, an Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene reported.
However, Navalny’s chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, wrote on Twitter that the lawyers were being told to wait and predicted they would not be allowed to see their client.
Navalny is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for breaching parole terms on old fraud charges he says are politically motivated.
His lawyers and allies are demanding he be transferred to a regular hospital, but the Kremlin has said Navalny is not entitled to special treatment.
Concern has grown in the West in recent days over his condition.
Germany said the EU would be closely watching to ensure Navalny received necessary care, while Britain called for his release.
The Kremlin has dismissed the outcry, saying that Russian convicts do not concern Western countries.
Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia in January from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from a poisoning attack with the Novichok nerve agent. He blames the attack on Putin, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
The EU and the US have imposed sanctions on Russia over the poisoning, and on Monday threatened Moscow with further penalties in the event of Navalny’s death.
Navalny launched his hunger strike demanding proper medical treatment over severe back pain and numbness in his limbs.
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