were assessing the bloc\u2019s strategy toward Russia <\/a>on Monday in wake of the news about his health.<\/p>\nNavalny, President Vladimir Putin\u2019s fiercest opponent, was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin \u2014 accusations Russian officials have rejected. Navalny\u2019s arrest triggered a massive wave of protests all across Russia, the biggest show of defiance in recent years. Soon after, a court ordered him to serve 2 1\/2 years in prison on a 2014 embezzlement conviction that the European Court of Human Rights deemed to be \u201carbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.\u201d <\/p>\n
Navalny went on hunger strike in prison to protest the refusal to let his doctors visit when he began experiencing severe back pain and a loss of feeling in his legs. Russia\u2019s state penitentiary service has said that Navalny was receiving all the medical help he needs.<\/p>\n
In response to the alarming news about Navalny\u2019s health this weekend, his team has called for a nationwide rally on Wednesday, the same day that Putin is scheduled to deliver his annual state of the nation address. According to a website dedicated to the protests, as of Monday afternoon demonstrations were being planned in 77 Russian cities. <\/p>\n
The Interior Ministry on Monday issued a statement urging Russians not to take part in unauthorized rallies, citing coronavirus risks and alleging that some \u201cdestructive-minded\u201d participants might provoke unrest. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that police will treat any unauthorized protests as illegal. In the past, security forces have violently broken up demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Already, Russian authorities have taken their crackdown on Navalny\u2019s allies and supporters to a new level, with the Moscow prosecutor\u2019s office last week petitioning a court to label as extremist groups Navalny\u2019s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his network of regional offices.<\/p>\n
According to human rights advocates, if it happens, both the foundation and the regional offices would be outlawed, paralyzing their operations, and those who work for either could be prosecuted. Donating money to either of the two \u2014 something thousands of Russians have been doing regularly in recent years \u2014 would also become a criminal offense punishable by a prison term.<\/p>\n
For now, several Navalny allies have dismissed the move to bring him to the prison hospital as insufficient. Navalny\u2019s top strategist, Leonid Volkov, said no one should assume it was even happening until the opposition leader’s lawyers confirm it. \u201cUntil the lawyers locate him, we won\u2019t know where he is and what is up with him,\u201d Volkov wrote in a Facebook post. <\/p>\n
One of the lawyers arrived at the prison where Navalny was supposed to be brought on Monday afternoon but has yet to see the politician, Volkov said. <\/p>\n
Ivan Zhdanov, the head of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, tweeted Monday that the transfer would take the politician merely to another \u201ctormenting colony, just with a big in-patient facility, where gravely ill are being transferred.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union and also the politician’s personal physician, noted that it was \u201cnot a hospital where a diagnosis can be determined and treatment (can be) prescribed for his ailments,\u201d but rather \u201ca prison where tuberculosis is being treated.\u201d <\/p>\n
She again called for the prison to let her and other physicians see him. <\/p>\n
Since last month, the politician has been serving his sentence in a penal colony notorious for its harsh conditions. <\/p>\n
Navalny has complained about being sleep-deprived because guards conduct hourly checks on him at night, and said he developed severe back pain and numbness in his legs within weeks of being transferred to the colony. His demands for a visit from an independent \u201ccivilian\u201d physician were rebuffed by prison officials, and he went on hunger strike on March 31. <\/p>\n
In a message from prison on Friday, Navalny said prison officials threatened to force-feed him \u201cimminently,\u201d using \u201cstraitjacket and other pleasures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, the French newspaper Le Monde published a letter to Putin signed by dozens of prominent cultural figures \u2014 including writers Salman Rushdie and Mario Vargas Llosa, singer Patti Smith and actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Kristin Scott Thomas \u2014 calling for giving Navalny access to proper medical care. <\/p>\n
On Monday, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovi\u0107, reiterated her calls for Navalny’s release and to \u201cgive him full access to medical care in light of his serious health deterioration.”<\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Politics MOSCOW \u2014 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike while behind bars, will be admitted to a hospital in another… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}