Jailed Russian opposition leader declares hunger strike

MOSCOW

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny declared a hunger strike on Wednesday after unsuccessful attempts to get medical care for severe back pain, according to an Instagram post.

Navalny survived an August assassination attempt with a chemical weapon that the U.S. State Department blames on Russian security agencies, but he was jailed when he flew back to Russia in January after treatment in Germany.

He was sentenced to 2 1⁄2 years in prison for breaching parole conditions in a 2014 fraud case, partly because he failed to report to authorities while under treatment in Germany.

Navalny last week requested painkilling injections for back pain and a right leg so numb that he says it barely supports his weight.

“I have the right to call a doctor and get medicine. Neither of which I am given, stupidly,” the Wednesday post said. It said the numbness was moving to his left leg.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on Navalny’s complaints, calling it a matter for prison authorities.

The post said he was lying in his cell bed on a hunger strike, in what he called a major violation of prison rules. He was reading the Bible, the only book available to him in prison.

The post said he was also being “tortured by sleep deprivation,” woken up eight times every night by a guard shining a torch in his face to supposedly ensure he has not absconded.

“Why do prisoners go on hunger strikes? This question worries only those who have not been prisoners. From outside, everything looks complicated. But from the inside, it’s simple: You don’t have any other methods of struggle, so you go on a hunger strike,” the post said. Navalny is denied Internet access, and his team has not indicated how the posts in his name are made, but he meets regularly with his attorneys.

Navalny is serving his term in Penal Colony No. 2, a notorious prison that former inmates claim uses constant psychological pressure to “break” inmates.