Russian political prisoner risks blindness as health deteriorates

A man convicted of spreading “false information” about the Russian military risks going blind in prison due to prolonged stress, his lawyer told human rights group OVD-Info on Friday.

Maria Bontsler said her client, Igor Baryshnikov, could barely see in one eye, while the second eye continued to deteriorate, adding he needed urgent medical attention to stop him losing his vision altogether.

Baryshnikov, a 65-year-old resident of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in June 2023 for spreading “false information” about the Russian army over a series of social media posts he wrote about the war in Ukraine.

Bontsler said that a fistula — an abnormal connection between two body parts — had also developed where Baryshnikov had had a catheter fitted, which he lived with for a year and a half as surgery on his prostate had been postponed. In September, he had a benign tumour removed from his prostate after a long delay.

In August, The United Nations Human Rights Committee had demanded that the Russian authorities allow Baryshnikov access to proper medical care, with Bontsler arguing that the refusal of the Russian authorities to grant him access to medical care was a violation of his right to be free from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

Earlier in his sentence, Baryshnikov had also been denied permission to attend his mother’s funeral.