While the world’s attention focuses on Ukraine’s fight to drive out Russian invaders, Vladimir Putin’s jailers have been been tormenting  imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Russian prison authorities have interfered with Navalny’s preparation of his defence and communication with his lawyer, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price says.

He also said Navalny has been repeatedly placed in solitary confinement for minor alleged infractions.

Price said Navalny’s treatment was “evidence of politically motivated harassment” and he reiterated US calls for the opposition leader’s immediate release.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic inside Russia, is serving an 11-1/2 year sentence after being found guilty of parole violations and fraud and contempt of court charges.

He says all charges against him were fabricated as a pretext to smother dissent and thwart his political ambitions.

Navalny said on Thursday that prison authorities were stripping him of his lawyer-client privilege, with all correspondence with his legal team subject to three-day checks by prison staff.

Writing on Twitter, where Navalny has been posting via his lawyers, the Kremlin critic said prison administrators had refused to tell him the reasons for the move, and that he now communicates with his lawyers through “double plastic glass with bars inside”.

-AAP