Alexei Navalny is Alive and Well in a High-Security Arctic Prison
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Raven Ruma
- . December 26, 2023
- . Update: December 26, 2023 5:42 pm
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who disappeared after unveiling an anti-Putin 2024 presidential election strategy, has been locked up in a high-security prison colony in Russia’s arctic. Concerns were raised when his team lost contact on December 6.
Navalyn, who is facing a 19-year jail term, resurfaced on December 25 to the delight of his team. Kira Yarmysh, the opposition leader’s spokeswoman, said on Monday that he had been found in the Polar Wolf colony, officially known as the IK-3 penal colony, in Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets region, about 1,900 km northwest of Moscow.
The 47-year-old confirmed in a message on X that he has been transferred to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m totally relieved that I’ve finally made it. I’m still in a good mood, as befits a Santa Claus.”
Navalny in Arctic Prison Since Saturday
He shared that he is exhausted from the 20-days of transportation. “They brought me here on Saturday night. And I was transported with such precaution and on such a strange route (Vladimir-Moscow-Chelyabinsk-Ekaterinburg-Kirov-Vorkuta-Kharp) that I didn’t expect anyone to find me here before mid-January.”
Navalny said he was very surprised when the cell door was opened on Monday and he was told that a lawyer was there to see him. “He told me that you had lost me, and some of you were even worried. Thanks very much for your support.” He added that there’s not much to tell. “I can’t entertain you with stories about polar exotics yet because I haven’t seen anything outside of the camera. And outside the camera window, I can only see the fence, which is very close.
“I also went for a walk. The yard is a neighboring cell, a big bigger, with snow on the ground. And I saw a convoy, not like in central Russia, but like in the movies – with machine guns, warm mittens and felt boots. And with the same beautiful fluffy shepherd dogs.”
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Ivan Zhadov, Navalny’s aide, said the change of prison demonstrated how the system deals with political prisoners, trying to isolate and suppress them. The opposition leader’s call for Russians to vote for anyone but incumbent Vladimir Putin in the upcoming election prompted the Kremlin to take action.
Navalny was to appear in court in early December but didn’t. Yarmysh said the team last heard from him on December 5 and lawyers were refused access to see him in prison. And now, their leader has emerged in an Arctic prison.
