MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - The Federal Penitentiary Service directorate for the Vladimir region, where Alexei Navalny is serving his sentence and announced a hunger strike on Wednesday, said that the opposition activist is receiving the necessary medical assistance.
"Convict Navalny is being provided with all necessary medical assistance in accordance with his current medical condition," the directorate said.
Supervision of prison inmates is organized in accordance with the law which "applies to all convicts without exception," it said.
"The staff at the correctional facility strictly honor every inmate's right to an uninterrupted eight-hour sleep. At night, as is required by the law, the staff make prison rounds, conducting a visual inspection to make sure convicts sleep in their beds. These measures do not interfere with the inmates' rest," the agency said.
Last week lawyers for Navalny said that his health deteriorated in the penal colony.
The Federal Penitentiary Service's Directorate for the Vladimir region then said Navalny's state of health had been "deemed stable, satisfactory."
The members of the Public Monitoring Commission who have visited Navalny said he was complaining about leg pain, but could walk.
Earlier on Wednesday Navalny announced that he was going on hunger strike, having been refused examination by an invited doctor.
Navalny is now serving a prison term in the so-called Yves Rocher case in Penal Colony No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service's Directorate for the Vladimir region near the city of Pokrov.