Last Friday, Navalny was released from his solitary confinement after 15 days, the maximum number of consecutive days a person can legally spend in a punishment cell. But just after Navalny’s followers and colleagues released a critical investigation on Monday into possible corruption involving food prices in the detention camp where the Russian opposition leader is held, he was returned to solitary confinement.
According to Navalny, a “work cell” was prepared for him immediately after the investigation was made public, after which the conditions for him changed from “hell-like” to “extremely hell-like.”
Ration
The solitary confinement took a heavy toll on Navalny’s health: the opposition leader lost more than 8 kilos in the 15 days he spent in isolation because prison guards denied him food. Prisoners in the penal colony can buy extra food on top of their rations. Navalny was not allowed to do that, he tweeted: “The guards wouldn’t let me buy food, not even with money I earned.”
According to his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, an ambulance had to rush to the penal colony on Friday. Navalny’s condition is said to have deteriorated to such an extent that his life was in danger due to a stomach ailment. It is unknown how he is doing now.
Torture practices
More than two years have now passed of the 11.5 years that Navalny has to serve in IK-6. That is a penal camp in Melechovo that is notorious for the torture that takes place there. He was captured after returning to Moscow from Berlin in January 2021, where he was nursed for months after an attempt by the Russian secret service to poison him. Because, according to the Russian authorities, he had failed to report to the police every week, he was immediately given a suspended prison sentence.
That sentence was later extended by another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. Navalny insists the charges against him are fabricated, in an attempt to silence him. The opposition leader is known as one of the biggest Kremlin critics, who has been speaking out against corruption within President Putin’s regime for years.
The international community has long been concerned about Navalny’s treatment. In September, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Navalny was repeatedly placed in isolation for minor offenses. Russian prison authorities would also make communication between the opposition leader and his lawyers more difficult, so that confidential contact would no longer be possible.
