By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) – A mock prison cell imitating one in which prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has spent months of solitary confinement was put on display in Vilnius on Wednesday, ahead of a NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital next week.
Oleg Navalny unveiled the display to highlight the case of his 47-year-old brother who has faced a string of court cases over the years that he says are politically motivated.
“His health is of serious concern to us,” Oleg Navalny, 40, said. “We are barred from passing him medicine, so the problems cannot be alleviated. And all this worsens the consequences of the poisoning … But he is still in a fighting mood.”
Alexei Navalny survived what he described as an attempt to poison him during a flight in Siberia in 2020, with what Western laboratory tests determined was a nerve agent. He was treated in Germany but voluntarily returned to Russia in 2021, where he was jailed.
The Kremlin denies accusations by the West and rights groups that Alexei Navalny is a political prisoner. It routinely refuses to comment on his case and refers questions about him to the courts and prison service.
The mock cell, measuring two metres by three metres, has a small window, a wooden chair, a decrepit mattress, sink and floor toilet, as well as a fold-down table and bed.
Describing his brother’s experience in solitary confinement, Oleg Navalny, who is himself on a Russian wanted list, said: “Time almost stops … All one does is wait for food to arrive.”
Alexei Navalny is serving 11-1/2 years for fraud and contempt of court on charges that he says were trumped up to silence him. He is now on trial on charges, which could jail him for decades, including creating an extremist organisation and making public appeals to commit extremist activity.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Edmund Blair)
