It looks like Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny won’t be allowed abroad for medical treatment, after all, according to his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev.
Earlier on Thursday, Navalny reported that he has been issued a passport that would allow him to travel outside Russia for the first time in five years. Navalny said he planned to seek medical help abroad for an injury sustained last month, when a man attacked him outside his office in Moscow, spraying antiseptic in his eye. A recent medical examination reportedly showed that Navalny has lost 85 percent of his vision in his right eye.
“The head of penitentiary inspection called, mentioning Navalny and demanding that he not even dare about thinking of traveling abroad, very strongly asking that it be conveyed to Navalny that convicts are not permitted to leave the country,” Kobzev wrote on Twitter.