Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of two imprisoned members of the punk collective Pussy Riot, accused Russian authorities on Friday of imposing an "information blockade" on her since she declared a hunger strike last month in a statement from prison hospital.

Tolokonnikova, who ended the hunger strike after medical complications, had not been able to see lawyers or relatives for two weeks, prompting serious concerns for her health. She was allowed to see her lawyer for the first time only on Thursday. She said there were no medical grounds for her to be denied access to lawyers and visitors, suggesting this made it clear that isolating her from the outside world had been a political decision.

"I want to make a declaration to everyone who has a role in making the decision to put me in isolation," Tolokonnikova wrote in her statement, seen by the Guardian. "If you think that without contact with my friends I will become amenable and open to compromise, and go back on the views I have formed about Mordovia's camps during my time in jail, then you are horribly mistaken."

Last month, Tolokonnikova announced she was going on hunger strike in protest against slave-like labour conditions in her prison, reminiscent of the Soviet Gulag system. She described life in jail, including 17-hour working days and a series of sadistic punishments inflicted by guards, in a long open letter that was widely discussed online. She also claimed that she had received thinly veiled death threats from the prison's management.

She is serving her time at Penal Colony No 14 in the region of Mordovia, infamous in Soviet times for its network of Gulags, and in the news recently as the new home of the French actor turned Russian citizen, Gérard Depardieu.

"I demand that the colony administration respect human rights," Tolokonnikova wrote in her initial letter. "I demand that the Mordovia camp function in accordance with the law. I demand that we be treated like human beings, not slaves."

The letter has prompted promises from the Kremlin's human rights council that it will investigate the claims, but prison officials insist the allegations are fabricated.

Anatoly Rudy, deputy head of Russia's prison service, said on Thursday that the prison where Tolokonnikova is serving her sentence is "a pretty good institution" and in many ways exceeded the legal standards for prison conditions. "They have toilet cubicles that are individually separated, and from what I've seen in video footage, there are even toilet seats," he said.

Tolokonnikova's husband, Petya Verzilov, who spent the day outside the prison hospital where Tolonnikova is being held but had not yet been able to see her, told the Guardian by telephone on Friday that she had recovered from the medical complications brought about by her hunger strike. He also said he had received another, longer statement from Tolokonnikova that he planned to release on Friday evening.

"She's OK now," said Verzilov. "She has been moved from confinement to the more general prison hospital area, where she is with other inmates. The lawyer was finally able to see her yesterday."

In her statement, the 23-year-old warns the authorities that if they continue to deny her the right to legal consultations, then her "uncompromising attitude to the infringement on human rights" in prison camps will only grow stronger.

"Since Soviet times, the camps of Mordovia have served as the final instrument for the authorities to use in the hope of breaking the will of political prisoners who did not repent in mindless and illegal court cases," wrote Tolokonnikova. "And I am doing everything in my power to take away this torture instrument from our state … I am pleased that I can in some way change the situation in Mordovia's camps today, in order to prevent torture and deaths."

Tolokonnikova was given a two-year sentence for her part in Pussy Riot's "punk prayer" in Moscow's largest cathedral, calling on the Virgin Mary to "kick out Putin". Another band member, Maria Alyokhina, was given the same sentence but is serving her time in a different prison. A third Pussy Riot member, Ekaterina Samutsevich, was freed on appeal.