Scores of world figures urge Putin to free Navalny in open letter

Famous writers and actors have signed an open letter urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to free opposition politician Alexei Navalny from prison torture.

Nobel laureates Svetlana Alexievich, JM Coetzee, Herta Mueller, Orhan Pamuk, Olga Tokarczuk, and Mario Vargas Llosa signed the appeal.

Navalny, a former lawyer who gained to fame by lampooning Putin’s elite and alleging massive corruption, is serving 11-1/2 years in a prison colony on fraud charges he claims were cooked up to keep him from challenging Putin, something the Kremlin denies.

Russian officials say Navalny and his supporters are CIA-linked fanatics aiming to destabilize Russia. They have outlawed his movement and Navalny is facing fresh accusations that could add years to his prison sentence.

In recent weeks, Navalny’s followers have worried he may die in prison. He reportedly lost weight and had significant stomach problems.

“He has been consistently returned to solitary confinement, (and) squeezed into a concrete cell the size of a dog kennel, with no ventilation,” wrote dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, actors Jude Law and Benedict Cumberbatch, and writers Margaret Atwood, JK Rowling, and Salman Rushdie.

His attorney-client privileges are revoked, and relatives cannot visit or telephone. He must stand all day despite a fever.”

They said they were joining Russian doctors and lawyers in seeking an end to Navalny’s “torture.”

The Kremlin says Navalny’s treatment and health are up to the prison service, which has maintained it is providing him with all necessary medical care.

In 2021, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for what Western lab tests proved was a nerve agent poisoning in Siberia.

He was not poisoned, the Kremlin claimed.