A lawyer for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Thursday that he was in poor health, suffering from acute back pain and practically unable to use one of his legs.
Speaking to the TV Rain TV channel after visiting him in prison, lawyer Olga Mikhailova said Navalny had undergone an MRI scan but had not been told the results.
"In my opinion, he is in bad shape health-wise because he is experiencing severe pain in his back and in his right leg," she said. "One of his legs practically doesn't work."
She said appeals by his legal team for Navalny to be given the necessary medicine were ignored for four weeks. Navalny also passed on to his lawyers that he was being prevented from sleeping by prison guards, a practice he likened to torture.
He said he had asked prison authorities to let a civilian doctor visit him in jail because of serious pain he was experiencing, but said he had been refused.
One of his lawyers said earlier on Thursday that Navalny had been experiencing health problems for several weeks in jail.