MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2021) Russia's jailed opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who was recently placed in a solitary ward at a prison tuberculosis hospital, agreed to a glucose intravenous infusion himself, Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova said on Tuesday, adding that he was now on bed rest.
Earlier in the day, another lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said that Navalny was given a glucose drip on Sunday evening, almost three weeks after he went on a hunger strike for being denied a visit by a doctor of his own choice. Navalny has been diagnosed with two spinal hernias but has refused the treatment offered by the prison authority. The latter assessed Navalny's health as stable and satisfactory by medical professionals and said that he had been receiving all necessary care.
"He is on bed rest. ... He did not say anything today, but again, force-feeding cannot be just like that. If he agreed to a glucose intravenous infusion, then [nurses] should do it but they are failing [to perform the task]," Mikhailova said when asked whether Navalny said he was threatened with force-feeding.
The lawyer added that Navalny had agreed to a glucose drip on Monday but was not given one as nurses could not find his vein.
According to Mikhailova, the jailed blogger lost weight, and "it is hard for him to talk and sit."
On Monday, Navalny was transferred to the prison hospital, several days after his private doctors released results of his analysis saying he was in danger of a kidney failure or a heart attack.
The lawyer further noted that Navalny's ward was checked every two hours, as he was considered an escape-prone inmate.
"The inspections continue. Here they are even louder than in the colony [from which Navalny was transferred] because of the two screechy metal doors. So here he wakes up every time, every two hours," Mikhailova said.
In January, Navalny returned to Moscow from Berlin after receiving medical treatment for his alleged poisoning. The blogger was arrested on arrival and referred to a court, which in early February rescinded his suspended sentence in the 2014 Yves Rocher fraud case over multiple probation breaches and replaced it with a 3.5-year term behind bars. A Moscow city court reinstated the ruling but reduced the sentence to 2.5 years.
