Russian authorities say the situation of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny is stable.
The politician’s allies had warned that Navalny’s health has deteriorated and that his lawyers should not visit him.
Navalny is serving a 2.5-year sentence in a Russian penal colony. His chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, said on Wednesday that the opposition leader has been suffering from severe back pain since late last week. He would also no longer be able to walk due to complaints about his leg. Prison authorities only gave Navalny two pills, according to the chief of staff.
The Russian prison service later announced that Navalny had undergone a medical examination. His condition has been described as “stable and satisfactory”.
Supporters of the politician are not reassured. “Now we are really concerned,” his anti-corruption foundation wrote on Twitter. “Not even the federal prison service can properly call the state of Navalny.”
Navalny is in jail because he would not have adhered to the terms of a previous conviction, which he says was politically motivated. The Kremlin critic had not reported to the Russian authorities as agreed because he was recovering in Germany after being poisoned with a nerve poison.