Putin critic Alexei Navalny alleges he was thrown into solitary for washing his face
Ryan King
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Imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, 46, alleged he was thrown into solitary confinement on New Year’s Eve for cleaning his face roughly 30 minutes too early.
Navalny, who is serving out a nine-year sentence, alleged that a security film operator observed him washing his face and convened a commission to slap him with his tenth consecutive solitary confinement.
NAVALNY SAYS HE IS FACING NEW CHARGES AND COULD SERVE 30 YEARS IN PRISON
“My prison ghouls weren’t lazy and convened their commission on the weekend of December 31 just for me,” he wrote on Instagram, per a translation. “So I celebrated the New Year in the punishment cell in the company of my old friends: a homeless man (he was sad) and a psycho (he howled and yelled outside the door).”
A well-known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny was arrested in 2021 on alleged fraud charges after returning to Russia from Germany, where he received treatment after being allegedly poisoned, which he accused the Kremlin of planning. Navalny has denied wrongdoing and has long been a top Russian opposition leader.
During his most recent solitary confinement stint, Navalny’s lawyer claimed that a convict who had fallen ill had been transferred to Navalny’s cell. As a result, Navalny subsequently fell ill as well.
“Unfortunately, the bacteriological weapon worked. Navalny is now in a SHU cell with a fever and cough. We’re trying to give him medicine,” tweeted the Putin critic’s lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, on Monday.
A plethora of Russian doctors petitioned Putin to cease “abusing” Navalny, according to a report from the Moscow Times.
“We cannot and do not have the right to look calmly at the deliberate infliction of harm to the health of politician Alexei Navalny. From a medical point of view, it is obvious that Alexei does not receive sufficient medical assistance, and keeping him in solitary confinement is absolutely contraindicated in his condition,” an open letter from the doctors to Putin read, according to the outlet.
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Navalny was originally sentenced to two years upon his detainment in 2021 for violating parole, but authorities added nine years for the fraud charges last year, which he has openly suggested was a ploy by the Kremlin to silence him.
His prison is located in Melekhovo, some 155 miles from Moscow. A cacophony of world leaders, including those from the United States, have condemned Russia’s treatment of Navalny. Late last year, he warned that he could face an extra 30 years in prison for pending extremism charges against him.