More than 200 Russian doctors ask Putin to provide medical care to Navalny.

More than 200 Russian doctors on Tuesday signed a petition to President Vladimir V. Putin imploring him to "stop abusing" Alexey A. Navalny, Russia's most prominent politician. the Russian opposition, currently in prison serving much of his sentence in a punishment cell.

In the letter, doctors from across Russia said they could not stay away and watch how Mr Navalny's health was "deliberately affected". ."

"The conditions of detention and the appearance of Aleksei Navalny make us very concerned for his life and health," reads the letter, published by Aleksei Polupan , anesthesiologist, and Aleksandr Vanyukov, a surgeon. "From a medical point of view, it is clear that Aleksei is not receiving sufficient medical help."

The letter, signed by doctors with their full names, was a rare example of public criticism of the Kremlin in post-invasion Russia, where the government has tightened the screws on free speech. many professionals have been fired for speaking out or have faced criminal or administrative charges.

Mr Navalny became Russia's opposition leader on more prominently by exposing high-level corruption and challenging President Vladimir V. Putin and his party, United Russia. 2020, Mr. Navalny was poisoned in Germany with a military-grade nerve agent, and US intelligence agencies concluded that Russian security police agents were behind his attempted murder, officials said. of the White House.

Mr. Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 after recovering in a Berlin hospital and was promptly arrested. A few weeks later, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, apparently for violating the conditions of his earlier parole while in Germany. He was then sentenced to a new nine-year prison term in March, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, after prosecutors accused him of embezzling donations from his supporters .

In late December, Mr. Navalny accused prison authorities of using his health as a tool to pressure him.

On Monday, Mr. Navalny said in a series of posts on Twitter that just before New Year's Eve, prison authorities transferred him to a disciplinary cell because he had bathed on his face in the morning before the official prison schedule. It was the tenth time Mr. Navalny had been in that cell in 2022, he said.

Mr. Navalny also said he had to share a cell with an inmate who was deliberately placed in the prison medical ward "full of flu patients". Shortly after, Mr Navalny fell ill with a fever, chills and a cough, his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said in a post on Twitter, adding that his legal team was trying to get him medication. /p>