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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />
