Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny made himself heard for the first time in weeks on Tuesday from the IK-3 penal colony in Siberia. “Don’t worry about me,” he says through his spokesperson know on X. In addition, Navalny, who is serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism”, joked that his long beard makes him look like Santa Claus. He also thanked the people who support him and wished everyone happy holidays. On Monday, his spokesman said that Navalny was doing well “under the circumstances”.
The question is how Navalny is really doing. His team didn’t hear from him for weeks until Monday. The opposition politician was previously held in the infamous penal colony IK-6, east of Moscow, and occasionally managed to release messages through lawyers. That stopped when lawyers were no longer allowed to see him. On Monday, his team managed to find him after three weeks, only to find out that he is locked up in the IK-3 penal colony in Siberia, almost two thousand kilometers from Moscow.
According to Ivan Zhdanov, a member of Navalny’s team, conditions in the camp are harsh. “It is very difficult to get there, letters cannot be delivered and telephone calls cannot be made.” In recent days it has been around -10 degrees during the day in Charp, the place where the IK-3 penal colony is located and which has long winters.
Navalny’s lawyers believe the transfer is related to the presidential elections in Russia, which will take place in March 2024 and which President Vladimir Putin will win. One of his close associates previously said that Russian authorities want to isolate Navalny so that Putin will not face criticism from Navalny ahead of those elections.