The Kremlin’s main opponent, Alexei Navalny, announced on Wednesday that he had learned that he would be moved to a cell with even stricter conditions the day after his appeal for a 19-year sentence was rejected.
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Mr Navalny has been imprisoned since returning to Russia in early 2021 after recovering from poisoning and is currently in the IK-6 penal colony in Melechovo, 250 kilometers east of Moscow, where he is regularly sent to disciplinary cells.
This time the opponent must be imprisoned in a so-called “EPKT” cell, the isolation cell with the strictest conditions in the Russian prison system.
“Yesterday, immediately after the appeal in the case against me, they took me to the commission and announced that I would be transferred to the EPKT for 12 months due to my incorrigibility,” Mr. Navalny announced in a message on his social networks.
Since his arrest in January 2021, Mr. Navalny has communicated primarily through messages sent to his lawyers and then posted on his social networks.
“One year of EPKT is the harshest punishment that exists in the penal colonies,” declared Navalny, humorously assuring that he felt “like a tired rock star on the verge of depression who has reached the top of the charts and no more.” everything you can aspire to.”
It was not immediately clear whether these 12 months in the disciplinary cell will delay Alexei Navalny’s transfer to a new colony with even stricter conditions, as required by his new sentence.
Under this ruling, the opponent will actually have to serve his new sentence in one of the “special regime” colonies, meaning facilities in the Russian prison system that are normally reserved for life sentences and the most dangerous criminals.
From his cell, the 47-year-old anti-corruption activist has repeatedly denounced the Russian offensive in Ukraine in recent months and called on Russians to continue to “resist” the Kremlin.