Putin critic Navalny says he’s in punishment cell at Russian Arctic prison
Al Jazeera
‘Polar Wolf’ colony is among the harshest in Russia’s prison system, whose inmates have been convicted for grave crimes.
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny says he has been isolated in a small punishment cell for an alleged minor breach at a remote prison colony north of the Arctic Circle.
“I got seven days in SHIZO,” Navalny said, referring to the punishment cell where he has to serve a week.
Prison officials accused him of refusing to “introduce himself in line with protocol”, the Kremlin critic posted on Tuesday on X, with his account routinely updated via his allies.
Navalny was recently tracked to the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets region, about 1,900km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, after he went missing in early December.
The “special regime” or “Polar Wolf” colony is among the harshest in Russia’s prison system, located in a place with severe winters. Most inmates have been convicted of grave crimes. Kharp is about 100km (60 miles) from Vorkuta, whose coalmines were part of the Soviet gulag camp system.
