NAVALNY ALLIES JAILED ON EVE OF PROTESTS

MOSCOW Russian police detained allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday and raided two of his regional offices, his supporters said, a day before they planned to stage mass protests over his ailing health.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s staunchest critic, declared a hunger strike on March 31 to demand access to better medical care. He was moved to a prison with a hospital on Sunday. His supporters say they fear for his life.

The 44-year-old opposition politician is now being held in a one-person cell in the hospital of a maximum-security prison and has been given no treatment beyond a glucose drip, his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said after visiting him.

Nurses tried repeatedly to give him another drip on Monday but were unable to find a vein, he said.

The state prison service has said his condition is satisfactory and that he has agreed to receive “vitamin therapy.” Navalny’s allies plan to take to the streets on Wednesday evening in Moscow and other cities across the country.