Russian police detained nine people outside a prison holding Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday as a small group of his supporters came to the facility, and authorities turned away a doctor who tried to see him.
Navalny, 44, an opponent of President Vladimir Putin, announced a hunger strike last week in protest at what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to treat him properly for acute back and leg pain.
Some allies had said they would protest from Tuesday at the prison in the town of Pokrov, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Moscow, unless he saw a doctor of his choice and was given proper medicine.
