In an open letter, 600 doctors ask that the “bullying” cease against the imprisoned opponent.
by Benoît Vitkine (Moscow, correspondent)
So derisory may appear, victory is exceptional enough to be mentioned: Thursday, January 12, Alexei Navalny obtained an electric kettle and a plate of medication. The imprisoned opponent has been sick for ten days. Placed in isolation, he complains of a strong fever and coughs. He did not have access to a doctor.
According to one of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, the prisoners’ symptoms are those of a simple respiratory infection, nothing alarming, but the health of Alexei Navalny is fragile, permanently affected by poisoning that He suffered in August 2020. The mitard conditions, a bare concrete cell of 2 by 3 meters, do nothing: the room is freezing in winter and the prisoner must remain standing during the day.
His loved ones are worried and more than 600 doctors have signed an open letter asking that Alexei Navalny can be treated and that the “bullying” cease against him – a drop of water on the scale of Russia, But the initiative is exceptional and requires rare courage. Everywhere in Russia, the former supporters of the fund against corruption (its organization, dissolved in 2021) are tracked down, and any sign of support for Mr. Navalny is repressed.
The prison administration therefore ended up yielding, at least momentarily, just as it had done in the spring of 2021, when a hunger strike of twenty-four days had allowed Mr. Navalny, 46, of receive treatment for your back pain.
What will be the price to pay for this tiny victory? Since his return to Russia and his arrest, in January 2021, the opponent suffered incessant vexations and pressures, escaping only the direct physical violence which is customary for ordinary prisoners. At Melekhovo’s IK-6, where it was transferred in June 2022, the main weapon used to break it is the placement for “punitive isolation”, the mitard, for durations of ten to fifteen days.
Since he announced his desire to create a union for prisoners and guards, punishment is even systematic. Alexei Navalny never spends more than a few days on the general regime, where he works as “seamstress”. The opponent is frequently referred to the mitard the same day he is drawn from it, for ever more baroque pretexts: a poorly buttoned uniform (he affirms that we only give him to design too small), a courtyard Poorly swept away (in which, he says, the guards expressly disperse leaves), a tone deemed disrespectful …
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