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full screen Supporters of Alexei Navalny demand his release, here at a demonstration in Berlin. Archive image. Photo: Paul Zinken/AP/TT
The circumstances surrounding the imprisonment of the Russian regime critic Alexei Navalny have been unclear recently.
But on Tuesday there were signs of life where he says he was transferred to solitary confinement in the cold Arctic.
Imprisoned Navalny was recently moved to a remote facility north of the Arctic Circle, but a lack of information about the move prompted immediate concern among those closest to him for his well-being.
Tuesday’s announcement about Navalny’s condition was not reassuring, but it did at least signal that his sarcastic humor was intact.
“What a fantastic fresh breeze that blows into the prison yard despite cement barriers”, he reflected, noting that the temperature “has never been lower than minus 32 degrees Celsius”.
Navalny’s transfer to a remote and isolated penal colony is believed to be part of the Russian regime’s preparations for the presidential election in March, when Vladimir Putin will be appointed for a new presidential term.
The regime critic also announced that he had been put in an isolated punishment cell. The reason was that guards claimed that Navalny “refused to present himself in a correct way and was not interested in teaching activities”.
Navalny has been in solitary confinement 24 times and a total of 273 days according to his relatives.
Navalny was imprisoned in 2021 after returning to Russia after being treated in Germany for poisoning. He was sentenced to prison for, among other things, corruption in a summary trial. The sentence was extended last year to 19 years in prison for “extremism”.