Tucked away in the IK-2 penal colony 100 kilometers [62 miles] east of Moscow since March 1, the media has made sure that all the drama continues with 44-year-old Russian dissident Alex Navalny complaining about a bad back. Navalny’s wife Yulia demanded March 27 that her husband be transferred to Moscow for civilian treatment, not something the Kremlin or the Russian penal system pays attention to. Navalny’s been complaining about down-the-leg pain, typically related to an inflamed discs in the lower spine But Navalny’s attorney Vadim Kobzev, reports that prison officials haven’t given Navalny anything more a few imbuprofens, something not satisfactory for someone in Navalny’s pain. Members of the local Public Monitoring Commission visited Navalny to determine whether or not he received appropriate treatment. Navalny asked for Diclofenac injections, something not offered at the prison.
Where Navalny got word about Diclofenac is anyone’s guess, something used in the U.K. to treat down-the-leg pain. “From a conversation [with Navalny] we learned that he feels pain in his leg and asked for help in getting injections of Diclofenac to reduced pain. He is still able to walk,” said Vyacheslav Kulikov head of the Monitoring Commission in an online statement. All the close media scrutiny for Navalny stems from his high profile as Russia’s best known dissident, poisoned over the summer by what his backers say way Russian Security Services at the order of 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin isn’t happy to see the Western press obsessed with Navalny, especially now that he’s remanded to a Russian penal colony. Western journalists and politicians place their hope in Navalny to one-day lead a revolution to topple Putin and promote democracy in Russia.
For Western journalists the narrative that Navalny would promote democracy in Russia is utterly baseless. There’s so much hatred in the Western press for Putin they’re willing to put their faith in anyone promising a new Russian revolution. Last time in 1991 Russia experimented with democracy it failed. Former Premiers Mikhail Gorbacheve and Boris Yeltsin did their best to promote democracy after the Soviet Union disbanded Dec. 26, 1991 but it didn’t work. Russia’s major industries were taken over by oligarchs, promptly exploiting the Russian people to enrich themselves. By the time Putin came to power in 1999, Russia’s richest man was Yukos oil founder Mikhail Khordorkovsky who promptly monopolized Russia oil wealth. Putin realized that if Russia had a chance to survive, he has to take back Russia’s oil industry to Khordorkovsky, promptly charging with income tax evasion.
Khordorkovsky was sentenced May 30, 2005 to 10 years in prison for a variety of charges. Khordorkovsky went from eating Beluga caviar to sipping fish soup in a Siberian prison. Before his sentencing Khordorkovsky became a dissident like Navalny, promising to run for president against Putin. When Putin released him from prison Dec. 29, 2013, Khordorkovsky was forced into exile in Switzerland, eventually moving to the U.K. Navalny chose after his recovering in Bavaria from his Aug. 24, poisoning in Tomsk, Siberia, to return to Moscow Jan. 14 in direct defiance of Putin and the Kremliin. Unlike Khordorkovsky who simply wanted to run for president against Putin, Navalny runs a clandestine organization with the aim of overthrowing Putin’s government. Even while incarcerated, bad leg and all, Navalny has used his chief of staff Leonid Volkov to plan more demonstrations around Russia.
Khordorkovsky got plenty of support in the Western press for his persecution by Putin and Kremlin, resulting in nothing good for the former Yukos oil billionaire. Khordrvovsky still shows concern for Putin’s authoritarian rule but stays away from Russia, knowing the consequences. When it comes to Navalny, the Western press, backed by U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, tries to keep the pressure on the Kremlin. Their efforts to keep Navalny relevant while in a Russian penal colony has most likely made it worse for him. Whether admitted to or not. the Western press, Navalny’s a Trotskyite revolutionary, making no bones about his desire to topple Putin and the Kremlin. Putin and Kremlin see Navalny as an implacable threat to the Russian government, resenting U.S. and EU meddling in Russia’s internal affairs.
Without any proof, two-dozen Russian medics fear that Navalny’s back symptoms are lingering side effects from his Novichok poisoning, keeping the incident in the news. None of those medics know anything about Navalny’s condition that suddenly appears out of the blue after sent to the IK-2 penal colony March 2. “We are afraid of the worst. Leaving a patient in this condition without help, may be even surgical, may lead of severe consequences, including an irreversible, full or partial loss of lower limb functions,” said the doctors’ letter. Asking for the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent like Diclofenac doesn’t sound like it’s correlated with Navalny’s past poisoning treatment in Germany. Keeping his poisoning in the news, the Western press hopes to put more pressure on Putin and the Kremlin to release Navalny early from his two-year-eight-month prison sentence.
