Even in the depths of Russian jails, Alexeï Navalny has not lost his spirit of revolt. Incarcerated for a year and a half in Russia, the Russian opponent said on Monday that he had been placed in a disciplinary cell after having undertaken to form a union of prisoners.
“Hello everyone from the mitard. Union struggle is never easy, but then what about unions in prison, ”he wrote in a long message posted on social networks. Last week, the 46-year-old Russian opponent announced that he had created a union in his prison near the town of Vladimir – 200 km east of Moscow – where he works in a sewing workshop.
He said on Monday that he had won “his first victory” by replacing the stools of the inmates working in the workshop with chairs. An attitude that did not please his jailers, who placed him in solitary confinement for three days according to him, officially for having broken the rules by unbuttoning the top of his convict outfit.
He described his temporary cell as a “concrete doghouse”, damp with water on the floor. At the moment, it is “very hot”, according to him. “At night you feel like a fish lying on the shore,” he also wrote. The furniture is very basic: a chair, a retractable bed, a sink and “a hole in the floor”.
No outdoor outings
“I am a model of responsible consumption. In my cell, there is only a cup and a book. They only give a spoon and a plate at mealtimes,” says Navalny, who hasn’t lost his sense of humor either.
He also claims to be constantly observed by two cameras. Visits and mail are prohibited and he is allowed an hour’s walk a day “in a similar cell, but with a bit of sky”. He says he is entitled to paper and a pen every day for an hour and fifteen minutes. That’s where he supposedly wrote that message. “I am sitting on my iron bench in front of my iron table. I am writing this message and I will write instructions for the zeks (russian prisoners) about their rights at work, as long as they don’t take the paper from me. »
In March, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison under a “severe” regime for charges of embezzlement which he considers fictitious. He was arrested in January 2021, on his return to Russia after being treated in Germany following serious poisoning which he attributes to the Kremlin, which the latter denies.