Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny must serve his sentence in a penal facility where ‘torture-like’ conditions are so horrific inmates have severely injured themselves to avoid being sent there, a former prisoner has claimed.
Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was jailed this month over alleged parole violations related to an embezzlement case he said was trumped up for political reasons, something the authorities deny.
His whereabouts had been unknown since Thursday when his allies learned that he was transferred out of one of Moscow’s most infamous jails to an undisclosed location.
But it has been revealed that Navalny, 44, has arrived in penal colony number 2, known as IK-2, in the town of Pokrov, about 100km east of Moscow, human rights activist Ruslan Vakhapov told TASS agency.
Former prisoners from IK-2, where Navalny will serve his two-and-a-half year sentence, have said the conditions are ‘like torture’.
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny must serve his sentence in a penal facility where ‘torture-like’ conditions are so horrific inmates have severely injured themselves to avoid being sent there, a former prisoner has claimed
Navalny, 44, has arrived in penal colony number 2, known as IK-2, (pictured today) in the town of Pokrov, about 100km east of Moscow
Pictures from the prison today showed metallic grey buildings behind a grey fence and barbed wire inside the colony, as well as the gold domes of a church
Meanwhile, local activist Ruslan Vakhapov has revealed that Navalny ‘wouldn’t be able to ask for help until his lawyers arrived’ if anything happened.
Navalny was arrested last month upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.
Politician Dmitry Demushkin, who served a two-year sentence for inciting hatred in IK-2, has claimed that the conditions are so horrific that people would ‘cut their veins and stomachs’ open so as to avoid being sent there.
‘People did everything not to go there,’ Demushkin told Russian television channel TV Rain. ‘Even to the extent that they opened up their stomachs, opened up their veins.
‘Therefore, the administration never notified the convicts that they were going to the [IK-2] to serve their sentences.’
Pictures from the prison today showed metallic grey buildings behind a grey fence and barbed wire inside the colony, as well as the gold domes of a church.
Pictures from the prison today showed metallic grey buildings behind a grey fence and barbed wire inside the colony, as well as the gold domes of a church
Navalny (pictured with his wife Yulia) was arrested last month upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin
A guard at the gate asked reporters to keep a distance of at least 100 yards if they wanted to film it.
Demushkin claimed that the aim of the penal colony is to ‘psychologically break people’ and leave them isolated from the outside world.
‘When I arrived there, through unofficial channels, only three weeks later my relatives found out where I was,’ he said.
‘My first letter that the colony sent was two and a half months later, and before that all my letters were destroyed, and they did not reach me from relatives and friends.’
Demushkin said he spent the first eight months in the penal colony’s notorious second sector, where conditions felt ‘like torture’.
‘I was forbidden to talk to other inmates, they were forbidden to look at me, my hands were always behind my back when I was out of my cell,’ Demushkin told The Moscow Times.
‘It was forbidden to attend the local prison church, to do any sporting activities.’
Navalny accuses Putin of ordering his attempted murder after he was poisoned with Novichok
Another former inmate, Konstantin Kotov, who spent two years in IK-2 after being arrested and charged during Moscow’s election protests in 2019, said it was a ‘strict prison’.
‘This is, by any measure, an extremely strict prison,’ he told said. ‘They try to control your every step, your every thought.
‘Inmates who have spent time in different prisons across Russia told me this was the toughest one they have been in. It definitely felt like a high-security prison for hard criminals.’
The decision to move Navalny to IK-2 caused alarm to human rights activists who monitor the rights of Russian prisoners.
Pyotr Kuryanov, a lawyer at the Defence of Prisoners’ Rights Foundation NGO, said it is ‘lawless’ at the penal colony.
‘It’s completely lawless there,’ he said. ‘They will break you. Bad things have been going on there for a long time.’
Ruslan Vakhapov, a local activist of the prisoners’ rights group Jailed Russia, described conditions as particularly severe.
‘In short, it’s a bad colony,’ she told Reuters.
Many prisoners cooperate with the colony administration and help them to control other inmates closely, abusing them if they violate a strict daily schedule, Vakhapov said.
‘If there is a need to prevent Navalny from communicating with others, nobody would talk to him,’ the activist said.
‘(If anything happens), he wouldn’t be able to ask for help until his lawyer arrives,’ he added.
Navalny will be quarantined as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus before joining other prisoners in the colony, the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission that defends the rights of prisoners and has access to people in custody said, according to the RIA news agency.
Earlier on Sunday a Navalny ally, Leonid Volkov, called on Twitter for authorities to provide official information about his whereabouts and access to him by his lawyers.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, suffered a near-fatal poisoning in Siberia in August with what many Western nations said was a nerve agent. Navalny accuses Putin of ordering his attempted murder.
Putin has dismissed that, alleging Navalny is part of a U.S.-backed dirty tricks campaign to discredit him.
Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany.
The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated – and which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled to be unlawful.
His detention has fuelled political tensions between Moscow and Western governments, which are preparing additional sanctions against Russian officials.
Navalny’s arrest also led a wave of protests that drew tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.
Russian officials have dismissed demands from the US and the EU to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters.
Moscow also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny’s life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him.
The Russian government has rebuffed the court’s demand as unlawful and ‘inadmissible’ meddling in Russia’s home affairs.
Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny’s jailing.