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Navaln, who was released from a Moscow remand center on Thursday, is being held at the Federal Prison Service in the Vladimir region, about 100 kilometers east of the Russian capital, said Alexei Melnikov, the commission’s executive secretary. Moscow Public Monitoring Station, to the Bloomberg news agency. .
President Vladimir Putin’s most famous critic lost his appeal against a February ruling that in a case brought against A. Navalns, the probation sentence imposed in 2014 should be imposed with a royal custodial sentence for violating the period of probation imposed. This removes the last hurdle to sending a 44-year-old opposition leader to a prison outside Moscow.
A prison where prisoners live in barracks and generally perform manual labor is classified as a “red zone” where the administration controls all aspects of life.
“It is a strict correctional work colony with extremely strict rules, to put it mildly,” said Eva Merkačeva, a member of the prison system’s public monitoring group.
Peter Kurjanov, a lawyer for the NGO Prison Rights Fund, said he was surprised to learn that Mr. Navaln would be transferred to Vladimir prison, according to The Moscow Times.
“There are no laws there. Man is crushed there. Bad things have been happening there for a long time.” Vladimir Pereverzin managed to learn this 10 years ago, “Kuryanov said, referring to a person who had held a high-level position at the Yukos oil company, as well as its boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was accused of corruption and had to spend seven years behind bars.
During the last years in prison, from 2010 to 2012, Pereverzin had to spend IK-2 (Correctional Colony No. 2). He described that moment in his memoirs.
During a telephone conversation, Mr. Pereverzin, who now lives in Berlin, expressed his belief that a difficult time awaited Mr. Navalno.
“The conditions there are, of course, very terrible. The prison is near a swamp. It is cold and damp there, and the food is bad. In the past, violence was also a common phenomenon there,” said V. Pereverzin .
According to Kuryanov, most of the prisoners in IK-2 are convicted of drug distribution and theft, but there are also occasional political prisoners in the colony, such as V. Pereverzin, Konstantin Kotov (arrested during the protests in Moscow in 2019, sentenced under controversial law criminalizing repeated involvement in illegal actions, and IK-2, who spent two years) and Dmitry Demushkin, a nationalist, activist, and IK-2, who spent two years inciting hatred.
In a message in response to a request from The Moscow Times, Demushkin said that what IK-2 had experienced was reminiscent of torment.
The first eight months of his prison, as he himself put it, he had to spend in the infamous second sector, called “Suka” by the prisoners (translated from Russian as “bitch”) and distinguished by particularly cruel conditions.
“I was forbidden to speak to other prisoners, and they were forbidden to speak to me. When I had to leave the chamber, I always had my hands behind my back. It was forbidden to visit a local prison church or play sports,” recalled D. Demuškinas.
Both Pereverzin and Kotov said that they had not suffered brutal physical assault by prison guards. Both are convinced that they could have “succeeded” in this way because they are recognized figures.
This circumstance, in his opinion, could also protect A. Navalna, so it is likely that he will not suffer physical violence.
“The supervisors will not want to cause a global scandal,” Pereverzin said.
The former prisoners, in one way or another, admitted to having seen what other prisoners had to suffer: they were allegedly beaten not only by the guards but also by other prisoners.
According to Kotov, it was IK-2 that was chosen as a suitable location for A. Navalnas because of the impact of psychological isolation, which inevitably affects political prisoners in the colony.
Mr. Kotov pointed out that email was not allowed in the colony, and incoming letters from prison guards were generally read and analyzed, which took weeks or even months.
Mr. Kotov claims that he only had one hour a day to respond to letters during his detention and that he received a large number of letters from people who wanted to express their support.
In prison, Navalnas is also likely to be isolated from other prisoners.
“The other prisoners can’t talk to you. They want you to feel completely alone,” K. Kotov said.
“The objective of all this is to crush psychologically,” he stressed.
Pereverzin, who shared this opinion, added that ten years ago, other prisoners had been told [jo] like a plague ”.
Kotov, an opposition activist who was released in December after a year and a half in the same prison, said he was constantly intimidated, including frequent punishments for so-called misdemeanors, such as not properly respecting a prison guard or asking loaned to someone. gloves – because those sent by his relatives did not reach the addressee – as well as his isolation from other prisoners.
“Alexei has a very difficult time ahead of him,” Kotov said. “The administration follows every move.”
Although his case resonated so much that violence was not used against him, “I was under great psychological pressure from day one,” he said.
Activist lawyer Maria Eismont was admitted to Kotov a day and a half after her arrival in prison, but had already agreed to waive her right to have confidential conversations with her, the lawyer said.
“If I were from the prison administration and wanted to make Mr. Navaln’s life as hell as possible, I would send him to this colony,” Eismont added.
Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the Russian prison service, said there was “no threat” to the “health, especially life” of A. Navaln, the TASS news agency reported on Friday.
Mr. Navaln was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in a correctional colony for allegedly violating the conditions of probation while receiving treatment in Germany in August after becoming intoxicated with the neurotrophic substance Novičiok.
Western governments have also accused the Kremlin of trying to poison an opposition leader, although the Russian government categorically denies any role.
The European Court of Human Rights, expressing concern about Navaln’s safety in prison, demanded in mid-February that the Russian authorities immediately release the arrested opponent Alexei Navaln from the remand center. Russian officials rejected such a request.
A critic of the Kremlin said he falls into the category of convicts who tend to hide from justice. Such a circumstance could prevent Mr. Navaln from being released prematurely and would mean that he would be subject to special supervision.
American Paul Whelan, accused of espionage, complained late last year that prison guards wake him up every two hours to verify his whereabouts.
Mr. Navaln recently suffered a symbolic blow when the international human rights organization Amnesty International annulled the decision to recognize Mr. Navaln as a “prisoner of conscience”, stating that the anti-immigrant speeches made at the beginning of his career were in line with the “speech of hate “.
Navaln’s allies condemned the organization’s move, claiming that Amnesty International had been the victim of a campaign by pro-Kremlin forces. The International Organization for the Defense of Human Rights denies such accusations.
Navaln’s arrest in mid-January, when he returned to Russia, sparked the largest protests against the Kremlin in many years. The Kremlin has condemned the move by the European Union and the United States, which are currently considering imposing criminal sanctions on Russia for Navaln’s imprisonment.
Russian authorities cracked down on the January demonstrations, jailing more than 11,000 people and prosecuting Navaln’s main allies.
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