Putin's opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been moved from prison in Russia | Photo: EFE/EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Tuesday (26) that he was doing well in his first message since being transferred to a prison in the Arctic Circle, where his whereabouts were known after almost three weeks without his supporters knowing. Where he was.
“Do not worry about me. I'm doing well. I am very happy to have achieved my goal,” Navalny said in a letter published on his Telegram channel.
Navalny announced that he arrived at the IK3 prison in the YamalNenets Autonomous Okrug on Saturday (23) after a 20day trip from Moscow to the city of Charp with stops in several cities, including the capital of the Urals , Yekaterinburg and Vorkuta, home to one of the most feared Soviet gulags.
He admitted that the prison transfer, known in Russia as “etapirovanie,” was “quite stressful,” but added that his mental state was “definitely excellent.”
“I didn’t expect anyone to find me until midJanuary. That's why I was so surprised when the door opened in the afternoon with the words: 'Your lawyer is here. He said they had lost sight of me, and some had.' “I was even worried about myself. Thank you for your support!” he said.
Navalny emphasized that the prison is located inside the Arctic Circle and that when he looks out the window of his cell, “it is first night, then night, and then night again.”
The opponent's lawyers have been unable to reach him since December 5, alarming his supporters and Western law firms.
The town of Jarp with around 6,000 inhabitants is almost 2,000 kilometers from Moscow.
According to an associate of Navalny in exile, Ivan Zhdanov, the prison was given the name “Arctic Wolf” and is considered one of the furthest from civilization in all of Russia. “Escape is virtually impossible. On one side hundreds of kilometers of tundra, on the other the Arctic Ural Mountains. That’s why they lock up the most terrible criminals and serial killers there,” Ivan Vostrikov, an employee of the opposition Tyumen region in Siberia, said on social media.
Ten days ago, the Russian Penitentiary Service (FSIN) reported that Navalny had been transferred from the prison where he was serving his sentence in the Vladimir region “in light of the decision of the Moscow City Court of August 4,” which contained a new 19 years Imprisonment for extremism.
Navalny, who has served nearly 30 years in prison for various crimes, was transferred after he announced a campaign against President Vladimir Putin's reelection next year. The current Kremlin leader has been in power since 2000. (With EFE agency)
Infographics Gazeta do Povo[Clique para ampliar]