His tormentors have not ceded one inch.

On Saturday, the ninth day after he was transferred to hospital, Vasily Aleksanyan was at last visited by his lawyer Gevorg Dangyan.

The former Yukos general counsel is being treated at city hospital No 60. There are bars on the windows of the ward, above his bed he is watched by CCTV, and next to him, 24 hours day, sits his guard. “That was not enough,” said his lawyer Yelena Lvova. “he is also chained to the bed. He said that the chain was only removed just before his lawyer arrived.”

There is no shower on the ward, only shared facilities for everyone on the same floor of the hospital. Since Aleksanyan has been there they have taken him for a shower twice. It is not known when his lawyers will be able to see their client again. Each visit requires permission from Matrosskaya Tishina, the remand centre where Aleksanyan was held until recently, and it took 9 days to get the go ahead from the prison governor. “Compared to the remand centre conditions are worse,” says Lvova, with concern: “There at least we saw him every day.”