A group of Russian doctors have published an open letter urging President Vladimir Putin "to stop torturing" jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who is now in punitive solitary confinement for the 10th time since August.
The letter, signed by 39 physicians and published by the Meduza news website on January 10, says Navalny’s state of health is worsening and that the refusal by officials at the penal colony where he is incarcerated to pass medicine on to him is threatening his life.
"It is obvious from the medical point of view that Aleksei Navalny does not receive medical assistance on the level required, and his placement in solitary confinement is worsening his state of health," the letter says, adding that Navalny needs to be examined by doctors from medical institutions outside the penal colony and, if need be, transferred to a regular hospital for treatment.
Navalny's lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said on January 10 that his client needs medical assistance at the moment as he is coughing and has a fever.
Navalny is serving two sentences for violating parole and embezzlement at Penal Colony No. 6 in the region of Vladimir, about 260 kilometers east of Moscow.
He was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Moscow from Germany, where he was treated for a poison attack in Siberia in 2020 with what European labs identified as a Soviet-style nerve agent.
Navalny has blamed Putin for the poison attack, which the Kremlin has denied.
The corruption crusader was then handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole during his convalescence abroad. The original conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
In March last year, Navalny, one of Putin's most vocal critics, was sentenced in a separate case to nine years in prison on embezzlement and contempt charges that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated.