Russian authorities have arrested supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who had come to the prison where he is being held. Among those arrested is Anastasia Vasiljeva, a doctor and union leader who is considered Navalny’s personal physician.
She said she had come to the penal camp about a hundred kilometers east of Moscow to persuade Navalny to stop his hunger strike. She would have made an appointment about this with the prison management.
However, Vasiljeva was refused entry at the gate and a little later she was arrested with six supporters and two CNN journalists, Reuters news agency reports. According to authorities, nine people were arrested for not following orders.
Access road blocked
Later, the security of the penal camp was increased by closing the car park. A checkpoint was also set up and an access road was blocked.
It is unclear how Navalny is doing, as he can barely have contact with the outside world. It has come out through his lawyers that he is not doing well and that he has lost more than ten kilos since he was in the institution.
Not allowed to be examined by an independent doctor, 44-year-old Navalny went on a hunger strike last week. Last night it came out that he has to cough and is in the infirmary with a fever.
He would be afraid that he has tuberculosis, just like three fellow inmates. But according to the Russian prison system, there is no question of a tuberculosis outbreak because then every prisoner would have been quarantined.
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