Accessibility links

Breaking News

Kremlin Critic Navalny In Poor Health, Lawyers Claim


A screenshot of an Instagram post, showing an undated photo of Alexei Navalny in an unknown location.
A screenshot of an Instagram post, showing an undated photo of Alexei Navalny in an unknown location.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in poor health, according to one of his lawyers. The lawyer said Navalny is suffering back pain and has virtually lost the use of one of his legs.

Lawyer Olga Mikhailova said Navalny, 44, received an MRI scan but had not been given the results.

"In my opinion, he is in bad shape healthwise because he is experiencing severe pain in his back and in his right leg," she said on TV Rain, according to Reuters. "One of his legs practically doesn't work."

She added that pleas for Navalny to be given necessary medicine were ignored for four weeks.

Russian authorities said Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition, according to the French news agency.

Navalny allies are asking for proof of his health after reports that his lawyers were denied access to him.

Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge.

He is being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as "a real concentration camp."

Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.

The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG