Alexey Navalny, don’t worry about me, Putin critic Navalny’s last weeks in Arctic prison
Alexei Navalny regularly made fun of the prison routine. (file)
Moscow:
Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny spent his final weeks in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
His 19-year prison sentence was widely condemned by human rights groups and in the West because he dared to offend President Vladimir Putin.
He posted regularly on social media, taking a particularly optimistic and light-hearted tone, through messages sent through his lawyers.
Navalny’s final weeks were as follows in his own words:
‘Ho ho ho’
On December 26, Navalny posted his first message from his new Arctic prison colony, having disappeared for weeks after being transferred from his former prison closer to Moscow.
The snowy IK-3 prison colony in the Siberian region of Yamal-Nenets, about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) from his native Moscow, is where he spent his last few weeks.
“I’m your new Grandfather Frost,” Navalny said in his usual cheeky style.
“I have a tulip, an ushanka and I will soon have valenki,” she said, referring to the traditional lovely Russian winter coat, hat and boots.
“I live above the Arctic Circle now… But I don’t say ‘ho-ho-ho’, I say ‘oh-oh-oh’ when I look out the window, where first it’s night, then evening It happens, then again night.”
Navalny said he was tired from the 20-day journey from his previous prison in the central Vladimir region, near Moscow.
“Don’t worry about me, everything is fine. I’m so happy I finally got here.”
‘Thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio’
A few weeks later, after being in quarantine, Navalny shared more details about his conditions in the new Arctic prison.
“The idea that Putin was happy that he put me in a barracks in the far north and that he would stop putting me in solitary confinement … was foolishness,” the 47-year-old said.
Prison officials told him: “‘Convict Navalny refused to identify himself properly.’ Seven days in solitary confinement.”
During his three years in prison, Navalny spent more than 300 days in solitary confinement – or the “punishment cell” as his colleagues called it, based on its name in Russian –.
He was ordered there on 27 occasions for minor violations of prison protocol.
Upon being allowed to take his daily walk in pitch darkness at 6:30 a.m., Navalny said: “I promised myself I would go out in any weather.”
His cell was “11 steps from wall to wall.”
“It has never been colder than minus 32 (Celsius). Even in such temperatures you can walk for more than half an hour – only if you have time to grow back your nose, ears and fingers,” he said in January. 9 posts.
“Today I was walking, chilling, and thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant and his trick with a dead horse,” he said, referring to a scene in which his character hugged an animal to stay warm. Crawls into the dead body of.
“I don’t think it would work here. A dead horse would freeze to death within 15 minutes.”
‘I am Russian’
Navalny also regularly mocked the prison routine.
On January 22, he said that the prison wardens at IK-3 would wake everyone up at 5 a.m. to play the Russian national anthem.
“And right after that – the second most important song in the country: Shaman’s ‘Ya Ruski’,” he said.
The song – meaning “I am Russian” – has become an unofficial anthem for President Vladimir Putin.
“Imagine the scene. Yamal-Nenets region. Polar night. In a penal colony for convicts, prisoner Navalny is serving a 19-year sentence – whom Kremlin propaganda has scolded for years for participating in Russian marches – ‘Yes “Russky”.
‘send me money’
At a court hearing on 15 February – the day before his death – Navalny was filmed joking with the judge over the fines imposed on him.
He laughed and said, “Your Majesty, I will send you my personal account number so that you can send me money along with your huge salary as a federal judge.”
“I’m running out of cash, and thanks to your decisions, it will run out even faster. So send it!”
‘I love you’
Navalny’s last post, published on Valentine’s Day, was dedicated to his wife Yulia.
“Baby, you and I have everything, just like in the song: the city, the lights of the airfield, the blue blizzard and thousands of kilometers between us,” he said, quoting a popular Soviet-era tune.
“But I feel that you are closer to me every moment, and I love you even more.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)