Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Wednesday said he is launching a hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment for severe back pain and numbness in his legs.
President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, who is serving a 2.5-year sentence in one of Russia's most notorious penal colonies, said he was losing sensation in both legs.
The 44-year-old said he was suffering from a pinched nerve that had first caused his right leg to go numb and accused prison officials of refusing to provide adequate medical treatment.
He complained he had only been given painkillers, but had not been properly diagnosed.
In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, Navalny said that the back pain was now causing a loss of feeling in his left leg too.
"I have gone on a hunger strike demanding that the law be obeyed and that a doctor be allowed to visit me," he said.
Navalny, who is considered a flight risk by authorities, last week filed two complaints against prison authorities, saying he is woken eight times a night by guards announcing to a recording camera that he is still in his cell.
On Wednesday, he said that instead of receiving medical treatment he is continuing to be "tortured through sleep deprivation."
"From outside it looks complicated. But on the inside it's simple: you have no other way to fight back, so you go on hunger strike," he added.
"I'm hungry, but at least I have both legs."
He added that he was lying in bed with a Bible in hand -- the only book he has managed to receive so far.
