Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny described how he lives in prison: “It’s a real concentration camp”.

The leader of the Russian opposition Alexei Navalny I call “Concentration camp“At the prison where he will serve his sentence, the Prison number 2 in Pokrov, Vladimir region.

“I must admit that the Russian prison system managed to surprise me. I never imagined that it was possible to set up a real concentration camp about a hundred kilometers from Moscow.“He wrote in a letter his lawyers posted to the opponent’s Instagram account, in which a photo shows him with his head shaved.” Three things continue to amaze me: the starry sky above us, the categorical imperative at the bottom of each one, and the incredible feeling of passing the hand over his freshly shaved head, “said the 44-year-old opponent.

Navalny was transferred last Friday from Kolchúguino preventive prison, in the same region, and the lawyers did not know where he was until Monday, when they were able to visit him.

The opponent claimed to have seen “no violence”, but por la tensión de los presos, “estirados y con miedo a girar la cabeza, me parecen creíbles todas las historias de que aquí, en la cárcel número 2 de Pokrov, hasta hace poco golpeaban a los reos con martillos de madera hasta dejarles al borde of death”.

“Now the methods have changed, and I will honestly say that I can’t remember another place where everyone talks with such politeness and even in a certain sense, in a friendly manner“, I observe.

In addition, the opponent mentioned a countless number of prison rules, including the strict ban on swearing or speaking in slang. Imagine a prison where no curse is spoken. Something terrible, ”he quipped.

The opponent noted that, in the style of George Orwell’s novel “1984”, Everywhere there are cameras and not the slightest offense goes unnoticed, a kind of “education through dehumanization”.

Navalny also pointed out that as a prisoner “inclined to escape” – as he has been described by the authorities – he is the subject of a constant surveillance and even at night he is photographed by his guards every hour. “Then I sleep peacefully thinking that there are people who remember me and will never lose sight of me. Isn’t that something great? He concluded sarcastically.

The opponent received a visit from his lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, in Pokrov.

“For the moment it is in quarantine, with six other people“Said the lawyer, quoted by the Russian agency Interfax, and assured that the opponent was”lively and happy“.

The prison he is in has been described as particularly harsh by several former inmates. Opposition Konstantin Kotov, who spent more than a year there, said detainees at the center have little free time and are virtually isolated from the outside world.

A distant legacy of the Gulag, this prison is today one of 684 work camps that accommodate 393,000 prisoners in Russia.

Navalny, the loudest opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from neurotoxin poisoning he blames the Kremlin for. Russian authorities have dismissed the allegations.

Navalny was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for an old fraud and money laundering case, but he will only serve two and a half years, given the ten months he spent under house arrest and the time he spent on house arrest. ‘he spent in preventive detention are deduced since his arrest on January 17 on his return from Germany.

The opponent accuses Putin of having ordered his assassination at the Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB).

Navalny’s arrest sparked large protests in Russia, to which authorities responded with more than 11,000 arrests. EU and US call for Navalny’s “immediate release”.

UN experts have called for an international investigation into his poisoning and the EU and US have sanctioned senior Russian officials in the matter.

(With information from AFP, EFE and AP)

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