Alexei Navalny often mocks daily life in prison. (document)
Moscow:
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, spent his final weeks in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
He was sentenced to 19 years in prison, widely condemned by human rights groups and the West as punishment for daring to offend President Vladimir Putin.
He posts regularly on social media in a characteristically upbeat and light-hearted tone, channeled through messages from his lawyers.
In Navalny’s own words, here’s what his final weeks were like:
‘Hahaha’
Navalny released his first message on December 26 from his new Arctic prison colony, where he has been missing for weeks after moving from a former prison closer to Moscow.
He will spend his final weeks at the icy IK-3 prison in Siberia’s Yamal-Nenets region, some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from his hometown of Moscow.
“I am your new grandfather Frost,” Navalny said in his typical tongue-in-cheek manner.
“I have a tulup, a ushanka, and soon I will have valenki,” he said, referring to the traditional furry Russian winter coat, hat and boots.
“I live above the Arctic Circle now… but when I look out the window, I don’t say ‘ho-ho-ho,’ I say ‘oh-oh-oh,’ first at night, then in the evening, then It’s just another night.”
Navalny said he was tired after a 20-day journey from his previous prison in the central Vladimir region near Moscow.
“Don’t worry about me, everything is fine. I’m glad I’m finally here.”
“Thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio”
Weeks later, after a period of isolation, Navalny shared more details about his conditions in the New Arctic prison.
The 47-year-old said: “Putin is happy (enough) that he locked me up in a military camp in the Far North to think that they won’t hold me in solitary confinement anymore… it’s so naive.”
Prison authorities told him: “‘Prisoner Navalny refused to introduce himself in the correct way’. He was placed in solitary confinement for seven days.”
Navalny spent more than 300 days during his three-year sentence in solitary confinement, which his colleagues dubbed the “punishment cell” after its Russian name.
He was ordered to jail 27 times, usually for minor infractions of jail rules.
“I promised myself that I would go out no matter what the weather was like,” Navalny, who was allowed to go for a walk in the dark every morning at 6:30 a.m., said.
His cell had “11 steps from one wall to the other.”
“The temperature never dropped below minus 32 degrees Celsius. Even at these temperatures you could walk for more than half an hour – assuming you had time to regrow your nose, ears and fingers,” he reported in January Zhong said. 9 posts.
“I was walking around today freezing up thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio and the trick he did with the dead horse in The Revenant,” he said, referring to his character crawling into Scene of animal carcasses keeping warm.
“I don’t think that’s going to work here. A dead horse would freeze to death in 15 minutes.”
‘I am Russian’
Navalny also frequently mocks prison routines.
On January 22, he said the warden of the IK-3 prison would wake everyone up at 5 a.m. to play the Russian national anthem.
“Right after that — the second most important song in the country: Shaman’s ‘Ya Russky,'” he said.
The song, which means “I am Russian,” has become President Vladimir Putin’s unofficial national anthem.
“Imagine this scene. Yamal-Nenets region. Polar night. In a penal colony, Navalny, a 19-year prisoner serving a 19-year sentence, is doing the ‘Ya Russky’ movement. Kremlin propaganda has accused him of joining Russia for years. Parade.”
“Send me money”
During a court hearing on February 15, the day before Navalny’s death, Navalny was filmed joking with the judge about the series of fines he had received.
“Your honor, I will send you my personal account number so that you, who earns a huge salary as a federal judge, can send me money,” he said with a smile.
“I’m running out of cash and will use it faster because of your decision. So send it in!”
‘I love you’
Navalny’s last post on Valentine’s Day was dedicated to his wife Yulia.
“Baby, you and I have it all, just like in the song: the city, the airport lights, the blue blizzard and the thousands of kilometers between us,” he quoted a popular Soviet-era song.
“But I feel you with me every second, and I love you more and more.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
