The Harrowing Timeline of Navalny’s Health Decline in Captivity: A Closer Look

2024-02-16 20:26:09

How Navalny’s health was undermined. Chronology

After poisoning in August 2020, Alexei Navalny lost about 15 kg in weight. He began to walk and eat independently only a few months later.

In January 2021 – just six months after the poisoning – Navalny returned to Russia and since then has not left the pre-trial detention center, colonies and other institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service, without receiving adequate treatment.

In March 2021, when Navalny was in IK-2 in Pokrov, his comrade Leonid Volkov reported a sharp deterioration in the politician’s condition: he could not step on one leg and experienced severe back pain. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov then said that the Kremlin does not monitor the health of the oppositionist. Navalny himself later confirmed that his right leg had partially lost sensation, linking this symptom to hours-long trips to court in the “pencil cases” of paddy wagons “in a crooked form.”

Later, the politician was diagnosed with two hernias, and he himself went on a hunger strike, demanding that independent doctors be allowed to see him. Civilian doctors who treated Navalny in freedom asked for an end to the hunger strike on the 23rd day, warning that continuation could “cause significant harm to health.” He spent several months in the prison hospital, and in the summer he returned to IK-2.

In June 2022, Navalny was transferred to the Vladimir maximum security penal colony No. 6, whose administration began regularly placing him in a punishment cell. In total, he spent 308 days there. Due to the conditions in the isolation ward, problems with the spine worsened.

After repeated complaints, in December 2022, a doctor was sent to Navalny, who did not give him a diagnosis, but ordered him to start giving injections. Navalny tried to find out what exactly was being injected into him, but the copy of the medical record turned out to be illegible.

At the beginning of January 2023, the oppositionist’s lawyers said that he had a severe cough and fever – they associated the illness with a new cellmate “who has big problems with household hygiene”, who was assigned to Navalny in the punishment cell. At the same time, the colony administration refused to send the politician to the medical unit, explaining that there were prisoners there with the flu, which would only make him “more sick.” They did not give the donated medications to Navalny, but they increased his portion of boiling water by two mugs a day and gave him antibiotics; After this, the disease stopped progressing. It soon became clear that the doses of antibiotics given to Navalny by prison doctors were “huge”: he suffered a stomach complication and lost 7 kg of weight. The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the harsh treatment of the politician.

Despite stomach problems, the colony administration continued to place Navalny in a punishment cell, limit his purchases and throw away the food he bought. Throughout 2023, the convicted politician tried to get a dental examination, but the administration did not allow this either.

At the beginning of December 2023, Navalny became dizzy and lost consciousness, after which prison staff put him on a drip.

At the same time, Navalny was transferred to IK-3 of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the village of Kharp. The stage lasted 20 days, the politician described it as “quite tedious.” But even there, Navalny continued to be placed in a punishment cell over and over again – since January, he spent 42 days there.

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