Lawyers for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say the activist’s health has declined during his time in prison.
Olga Mikhailova, one of Navalny’s attorneys, told reporters after visiting him on Thursday that he was experiencing severe back pain and numbness in his right leg to the point that he was unable to walk on it.
“His health condition is extremely unfavorable,” she said. “His right leg is in a terrible state.”
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Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said earlier on Thursday that after some checkups, Navalny’s condition was found to be “stable and satisfactory.”
Mikhailova said that while the prison gave Navalny ibuprofen, it has not passed along medications from his personal physician or allowed his doctor to examine him.
In January, Navalny returned to Russia after receiving treatment outside the country for nerve agent poisoning, which experts suspect was most likely a result of a plot by the Russian government to have the politician killed. Upon returning to the country, Navalny was arrested and sentenced to serve two and half years in prison for violating the terms of his parole over a charge that he has insisted was politically motivated.
Navalny is currently serving out his sentence in a penal colony east of Moscow, which is known for its particularly harsh conditions.
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“I must admit that Russia’s prison system managed to surprise me,” he said in an Instagram post on March 15, according to a translation from the New York Times. “I did not imagine that it was possible to set up a real concentration camp 100 kilometers from Moscow.”
