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Allies of Navalny, who have had no access to him since last
week, said they were braced for bad news about his health. They
are planning mass countrywide demonstrations later this week.
Navalny's case has further isolated Moscow at a time when U.S.
President Joe Biden's administration has announced tougher
economic sanctions and the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO
member, has expelled Russian spies, accusing Moscow of a role in
deadly 2014 explosions at an arms storage depot.
Russia's prison service said in a statement that a decision had
been taken to transfer Navalny, 44, to a regional prison
hospital, although it did not make clear whether the transfer
had already taken place.
It said his condition was "satisfactory" and he was being given
"vitamin therapy" with his consent.
Ivan Zhdanov, head of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation,
called the move "a transfer to the same torture colony, only
with a bigger hospital, where they take seriously ill people.
"So it can only be understood to mean Navalny's condition has
worsened, and worsened in such a way that even the torturer
admits it," he said on Twitter.
Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who achieved fame with
viral videos cataloguing the vast wealth accumulated by senior
Russian officials he brands "swindlers and thieves", is serving
a 2-1/2 year sentence on old embezzlement charges that he calls
trumped up.
He was arrested on returning to Russia in January after
recuperating in Germany from what German authorities say was
poisoning with a banned nerve agent in Russia, which he and
Western governments called an attempted assassination. The
Kremlin denies any blame.
Navalny went on hunger strike on March 31 to protest against
what he said was the refusal of the prison authorities to
provide him treatment for leg and back pain. Russia says he has
been treated well and is exaggerating illness to gain attention.
The United States has warned Russia of unspecified
"consequences" should Navalny die in Russian jail. EU foreign
ministers were due to discuss the case on Monday.
The Kremlin said on Monday it would retaliate against any
further sanctions and rejected foreign countries' statements on
the case. "The state of health of those convicted and jailed on
Russian territory cannot and should not be a theme of their
interest," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
SHRUGGING OFF PRESSURE
Moscow has largely shrugged off international pressure since
becoming a pariah to the West in 2014 when it seized Ukraine's
Crimea peninsula and backed an insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
But the arrival of a new administration in Washington in January
could change the calculus if Biden presses ahead with tougher
sanctions than under former President Donald Trump.
Moscow expelled 20 Czech diplomats on Sunday in retaliation for
the Czech Republic expelling 18 Russians at the weekend, after
Prague accused Russia of a role in the arms depot blasts.
The Czech Republic said on Monday that Moscow's decision to
expel more Czechs than it had expelled Russians was unexpected,
and it called for a show of support from European allies.
The arms depot explosions in October and December 2014 came at a
time when NATO was considering transferring Czech arms to
Ukraine to help it fight Russian-backed separatists. Two people
were found dead at the depot after the initial blast.
Prague said it had learned that two Russian agents, later
accused by Britain of poisoning a former Russian spy in England,
had been in the Czech Republic at the time of the blasts. Russia
has denied any role.
Last week Russia also expelled 10 U.S. diplomats in retaliation
for U.S. expulsions of Russians and tougher U.S. sanctions
imposed by the Biden administration.
Navalny's allies are calling for mass protests this week to save
his life. The Russian authorities have banned such
demonstrations, cracked down on organisers and so far succeeded
in preventing a sustained opposition movement in the streets.
Police said on Monday that people should not participate in
banned demonstrations.
Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol said his friends were braced for bad
news about his health.
"We don't know what happened to him over the weekend because the
lawyers aren't allowed to visit him then," she told Ekho Moskvy
radio station. "I think there is no hope we will receive good
news about his health today. I think his state is really very
close to critical, close to being very grave. Twenty days on
hunger strike - that is an awful lot."
(Additional reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Anastasia
Teterevleva, Maxim Rodionov and Maria Vasiliyeva in MOSCOW,
Jason Hovet and Jan Lopatka in PRAGUE; Writing by Peter Graff;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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