Alexei Navalny, longtime critic of Vladimir Putin, is in physical deterioration while remaining in an isolated prison camp in Russia, according to allies and lawyers who would meet him on Wednesday.
The 44-year-old man was sent to a “completely lawless” penal colony last month to serve a two-and-a-half-year sentence on charges of embezzlement that human rights defenders considered fabricated and politically motivated.
The dissident was arrested after returning from Germany, where doctors said he was poisoned twice with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Navalny started experiencing severe back pain last week, along with a numbness in his legs that left him unable to stand, said ally Leonid Volkov. The political prisoner said he received only two ibuprofen from doctors in response to the pain.
Navalny’s lawyers said they were not allowed to visit him at a daily meeting scheduled for Wednesday due to “unspecified security measures”, raising concern that prison administrators were trying to cover up the severity of his illness.
Prison officials did not respond to a request for comment.
“Given all the circumstances known to us, the severe deterioration in his health can cause extreme concern,” said Volkov.
News of the notoriously rigid arrest comes a day after protesters announced plans to stage the biggest anti-Kremlin protest in modern history this spring, in an impulse to free Navalny.
Kremlin officials warn that any demonstration is illegal and say Navalny is a puppet sent by Western countries to destabilize Moscow.
An Instagram account managed by Navalny’s supporters documented his health problems on Wednesday, according to The Guardian.
A previous post citing a letter from the prisoner allegedly described the penal colony IK-2 in Pokrov as a “genuine concentration camp 100 km from Moscow” and compared the atmosphere to that of George Orwell’s 1984.
In another prison letter published on Instagram this week, Navalny compared his fellow prisoners to Star Wars Stormtroopers, the Guardian said.
“They have cigarettes in their teeth. Instead of laser rifles, they have metal crowbars, ”he wrote. “But wherever they are, at 6:05 am they hear the national anthem, at 6:10 am they do their exercises and at 6:30 am they put porridge in their metal bowls and put sweet tea in their metal cups. May the force be with you.”
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