Navalny sent to solitary confinement for 15 days on 31 December. According to his lawyer, politician is ill

Russia’s opposition politician Alexey Navalny who is serving a prison sentence n the Vladimir region was placed in solitary confinement for the tenth time on New Year’s Eve, Navalny tweeted.

“Convict Navalny, surveillance operator noticed that you washed your face at 5:24 in the morning, while according to the schedule you wake up at 5:00 and wash at 6:00,” this is the reason given to Navalny for his tenth punishment.

The politician clarified that a “bum” and a “psycho” were with him in the prison for New Year. According to him, the former was released from confinement on 3 January, he spent one day in the medical block with flu patients and returned to Navalny’s cell on 4 January.

“It seems like they use him as a bioweapon,” Navalny noted. His lawyer Vadim Kobzev tweeted that Navalny eventually fell ill.

“Unfortunately, the bioweapon worked. Navalny is right now in the solitary confinement cell with temperature, fever, and cough. We are trying to get medicine through to him,” Kobzev wrote.

Navalny was punished with solitary confinement for the ninth time in mid-December for using the word “fuck” when speaking to his cellmate. Navalny has been in solitary confinement almost constantly since mid-August.

The first time Navalny said he had been sent to solitary confinement was on 15 August. According to him, that was punishment for “regularly unbuttoning the top button of his prison robe” while in the industrial zone. The second time was on 24 August — for “3 seconds of hands not behind his back”.

The third time was on 30 August, the morning after he was released from his previous stint in solitary confinement. The fourth time was on 7 September, for 15 days.

The fifth time was on 23 September, for “speaking out against mobilisation” during a court session. The sixth time was on 11 October, for “refusing to wash a fence”.

The seventh time was on 1 November, for “sweeping the exercise yard poorly”. The eighth time was prompted by a “uniform violation”.