NAVALNY’S HEALTH WORSENING IN PENAL CAMP, SAYS AIDE

The health of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who is currently imprisoned in a penal camp, has significantly deteriorated, his chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, said on Wednesday, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

"Since the end of last week he has been suffering from severe back pain," Volkov said. Navalny also had symptoms of paralysis in one leg and could no longer walk, he added. Despite the pain, he had been given only two pills in total, according to Volkov.

"Under all the circumstances known to us, the massive deterioration of his condition can only be cause for extreme concern," Volkov said.

The Kremlin critic was the "personal prisoner, the personal hostage of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin; a dangerous, crazy murderer," Volkov wrote on Twitter.

"Putin bears the personal responsibility for the life and the health of Alexei Navalny in the torture colony of Pokrow," he added.

The 44-year-old opposition leader was sentenced to imprisonment at the penal camp in Pokrow, about 100 kilometers east of Moscow, in early February for violating parole requirements from an earlier sentence, while he was recovering from a poisoning attack in Germany, the Associated Press (AP) also reported.

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