Lawyer says Navalny suffering from 2 hernias

POKROV: A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday doctors have found he is suffering from two hernias.

Olga Mikhailova told the independent TV channel Dozhd (TV Rain) that Navalny has complained of serious back and leg pain in prison and is beginning to lose sensation in his hands.

Another Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev told the Interfax news agency the 44-year-old was suffering from two spinal disc hernias and also has a spinal protrusion.

Navalny went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he called poor medical care.

On Tuesday, the leader of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union was detained by police after trying to get into the prison to talk to doctors.

Russia's state penitentiary service has said Navalny is receiving all the medical help he needs.

In an Instagram post Monday, Navalny said three of the 15 people he is housed with have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, a contagious airborne disease.

He said he had a bad cough and a fever with a temperature of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6F).

On Monday, the state penitentiary service said Navalny had been the prison's sanitary unit after a checkup found him having "signs of a respiratory illness, including a high fever."

Mikhailova said Wednesday that Navalny's fever had lowered, but he is still coughing and is weak from the hunger strike.

Navalny is Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic opponent.