POKROV, Russia – The harsh medical treatment that Aleksei A. Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, is receiving in prison poses a deadly danger to his health, his personal doctor told reporters on Tuesday. The doctor was subsequently arrested along with several reporters.
Mr. Navalny, the leading political opponent of President Vladimir V. Putin, is 44 and survived last summer a poisoning with a military nerve agent that Western governments called an assassination attempt by the Kremlin, which denied any role.
In January, he returned voluntarily to Russia after receiving treatment in Germany. Upon his arrival, he was arrested at the airport for a parole violation related to a suspended sentence from 2014.
In the past few weeks, Mr. Navalny experiences back pain and numbness in his legs, according to his social media accounts, which appear under his name with information he passes on to lawyers. Advocates said in a recent interview that they suspect these conditions are persistent symptoms of the poisoning, or that it is the result of a herniated spine disc.
Mr. Navalny has also been on a hunger strike for almost a week now over what his social media accounts describe as prison officials’ failure to provide him with adequate medical care.
In addition, prison doctors said Monday that Navalny had signs of a respiratory ailment. According to state media, they dragged him into a sick bay on the grounds of the penal colony where he is serving a sentence of more than two years for the parole violation.
Mr. Navalny’s temperature rose to 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and he has what he described in a social media message as a severe cough.
One obvious possibility, the coronavirus, which spreads easily in prisons, has not been diagnosed. The authorities arrested Mr. Navalny tested for the virus, reports the Izvestia newspaper. Mr. Navalny said in a message on social media that he suspected tuberculosis, a common infection in Russian prisons.
Anastasia Vasilyeva, his personal doctor, told reporters on Tuesday that she was “very worried about his health, about what could happen to his health tomorrow.”
“I understand very clearly from the symptoms he has now, that it can lead to a very serious condition, and even to death,” she said during a muddy road outside the prison in Pokrov, about 60 kilometers east of Moscow, said. after guards made her request to Mr. Navalny to investigate, refused. “This is an insane violation of human rights.”
The refusal to allow access was expected. Me. Vasilyeva, who leads an organization of medical workers in the political opposition, the Doctors’ Union, showed up with half a dozen fellow doctors outside the prison to refuse the authorities access to specialist care.
Their white gowns are waving in an icy wind, the doctors grind around in the deserted place.
The prison, penal colony no. 2 in the Vladimir region, is surrounded by a frozen swamp. The doctors said they plan to protest regularly at the site, with a view to the rolled-up barbed wire of the prison wall, until Mr. Navalny received proper treatment. The prison authorities say they provide adequate care.
“We do not plan to stop,” she said. Vasilyeva said. “We will come tomorrow and the day after tomorrow until they enter us and we can understand what is happening to Aleksei.”
But after their actions on Tuesday, the police arrested me. Vasilyeva, several other doctors and journalists, including a CNN correspondent, Matthew Chance. Mr. Chance was later released.
After the chemical weapon poisoning, Mr. Navalny evacuated to Germany for treatment. The German government said it had discovered traces of Novichok, an exotic nerve agent that could be fatal, and that it was known to have been manufactured only in Russia and previously in the Soviet Union.
According to the British government, the poison was also used during the attempted assassination of a double agent, Sergei Skripal, in Britain in 2018.
“Nothing here is difficult to understand,” said Ivan Tumanov, the director of Mr. Navalny’s movement in the Vladimir region, said in an interview on Tuesday about Navalny’s deteriorating health. “Putin wants Navalny dead, so he will not allow doctors to visit.”
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Near Navalny, who is now on hunger strike, has been frying chicken, said Kira Yarmysh, spokesperson for Mr. Navalny, said Tuesday.
Mr. Navalny’s team suggested that tuberculosis is now a concern. Although it is mostly a past threat in developed countries and can be treated in the usual form with antibiotics, the disease is a killer in Russian prisons.
Traceable, exhausted men fill the tuberculosis sections. And harsh conditions have resulted in new tribes peculiar to Russian penal colonies, which have been upsetting global health experts for years.
Prisoners will try to spend time in the hospital to avoid violence from other prisoners. They will sometimes intentionally try to get sick or prolong the duration of their illness by refusing to take the full antibiotic or by spitting to swap.
The result, according to experts in infectious diseases, is an increase in forms of tuberculosis that are resistant to antibiotics.
Navalny’s social media accounts Said Monday that three prisoners in his barracks were admitted to the hospital due to tuberculosis.