- Alexei Navalny said in an Instagram post that prison guards are asking him to cook food.
- He is carrying out a hunger strike to protest against a lack of medical treatment in prison.
- His lawyer says his health is deteriorating and he is losing sensation in his hands and legs.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, says prison guards are trying to tempt him out of a hunger strike by frying chicken in front of him.
Navalny described the situation in an Instagram post from the IK-2 prison in Pokrov, near Moscow, where he is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence.
He has been on hunger strike since last week in protest of what he says is a lack of medical care. In the report, he said that guards also put candy in his pockets, as well as use the smell of boiled chicken.
Navalny, the Russian president’s most notable challenger, was sentenced in February for violating earlier parole conditions. Navalny argued that he could not have the ability to meet the conditions for release because he was poisoned with a nerve agent.
The poisoning, which took place in August and left him in a coma during the trials, is linked to the Russian FSB security agency, although Russian authorities deny being involved.
Navalny also says the original charges were politically motivated and accused Putin of trying to kill him.
Last week, he launched a hunger strike to protest a lack of medical treatment in prison. According to his lawyers, two spinal fractures were diagnosed in him and his health deteriorated badly, reports the BBC.
He walks pain and loses sensation in his hands and legs, his lawyer Vadim Kobzev said on Twitter on Wednesday. His weight also drops by £ 1 a day, writes Kobzev.
In the Instagram post, Navalny writes: “I knew, of course, that the authorities wanted to discredit the hunger strike first and mock it. Only the primitiveness of the approach is surprising.”
He said he was making sure he was only going to look for water while recording cameras, saying state television had accused his strike of being a sham.
He also described the guards teasing him as they cooked chicken in front of him, encouraging him to eat with them and saying things like: “Come on, Lex …. mmmm, what a smell. Give up, you will do nothing does not reach. “
He said he first thought they were following instructions, and then realized, “This is just what they piously believe in.”
Navalny also said he was being denied a proper medical diagnosis and that he may not know the results of an MRI examination.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said Russian authorities were possibly putting him in a situation of slow death and trying to hide what was happening to him, Reuters reported on Wednesday. His conditions amount to torture, she said.
According to Navalny’s lawyers, there are no doctors, only one paramedic, in his prison, reports the BBC.
The BBC’s prison service denied this, the BBC reported, arguing that Navalny ‘had all the necessary medical assistance in accordance with his medical indications.’
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s administration was “disturbed” by reports of Navalny’s deteriorating health, reiterating his view that the charges against him had been “taken up”.