Kremlin Critic Alexei Navalny Launches Hunger Strike

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Wednesday began a hunger strike to try and force the prison holding him outside Moscow to provide him with proper medical care.

In a handwritten letter addressed to the governor of his prison which was posted to social media by his team on Wednesday, Navalny said daily requests for a doctor of his choice to examine him and for proper medicine had been ignored.

After examining Navalny last week, Prison authorities said his condition was stable and satisfactory but the Kremlin has declined to comment on his health, saying it is a matter for the federal penitentiary service.

Interfax news agency cited the federal penitentiary service of the Vladimir region as saying in a statement that Navalny was being provided with all the necessary medical aid in accordance with his current medical conditions

Navalny says what started out as acute back pain spread to his right leg and then to his left leg and that the only medicine he has received has been Ibuprofen tablets and cream.

Navalny was jailed last month for two and a half years for parole violations that he called politically motivated.

He was arrested as he returned to Russia from Germany in January, where he had been recovering from what doctors said was a nerve agent poisoning.