Nearly 2,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow, just above the Arctic Circle, Alexei Navalny’s new prison is lost in the middle of hundreds of kilometers of tundra on one side and the icy Ural mountains on the other. the other. “Penal colony number 3” located in the small town of Kharp, in western Siberia, is also nicknamed “Polar Wolf”.
“I’m doing well. I am relieved to have finally arrived,” said Alexeï Navalny, whose comments were reported by his entourage on social networks. After being convicted of “extremism”, the opponent and enemy number 1 of Vladimir Putin Alexeï Navalny disappeared at the beginning of December from his prison near Moscow for a “discreet” transfer of 20 days to this new establishment.
Inherited from the Soviet Gulag, the Russian penitentiary system, which has changed little, has retained the camps and forced labor. Founded in the early 1960s on the former 501st Gulag, colony 3 can accommodate nearly 1,000 people. It is renowned for its extremely difficult detention conditions. Temperatures never exceed -10°C in winter, and could even reach -28°C next Monday. During this season, daylight lasts no more than two hours.
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According to his sentence, Alexeï Navalny must serve a prison sentence of 19 years, in a “special regime”. If colony number 3 does not a priori receive prisoners of this type, another colony in Kharp, numbered 18 and nicknamed “Polar Owl” has a quarter for special regimes.
“I am in a good state of mind, like Santa Claus,” added Alexeï Navalny, referring to his “beard” which grew during this long journey as well as his new winter clothes adapted to polar temperatures . One of his close associates, Ivan Zhdanov, declared that this famous colony number 3 was “one of the northernmost and most remote colonies” in Russia, where conditions are “difficult”.
Independent media outlet Vyorstka reported that prisoners there suffered abuse, lacked clothing and essential goods, and suffered physical and psychological abuse. One of them accused the guards of torture, reports the pro-government Russian media Life. “When prisoners enter the colony, they are taken to the public baths. When a person undresses and goes to wash, the water is turned off and masked people come in and start beating them. With me it lasted about half an hour. There were around 15 people, prisoners and employees,” said the detainee, whose comments were reported by the news site. Russian judicial authorities have repeatedly pointed out the health failings of this penal colony. The region’s prosecutor revealed “violations of criminal law” in an audit last summer.
“The few material improvements have not changed the military and demeaning logic specific to the [Russian] penitentiary system for thirty years,” recently explained the co-founder of the European Penitentiary Litigation Network Hugues de Suremain to Le Monde Diplomatique, explaining that the improvements were mainly due to to the decrease in the number of prisoners in Russia in recent years, accelerated spectacularly with the war in Ukraine.
While the number of detainees stood at 420,000 in February 2022, today there are 266,000, according to figures revealed by Deputy Minister of Justice Vsevolod Vukolov during a round table in October. The Russian armed forces recruited prisoners for war.
According to his entourage, Navalny was sent to this new prison for “maximum” isolation in the run-up to the Russian presidential election. “I think Navalny was sent here precisely to ensure this maximum possible physical isolation, so even making a trip there would be a problem,” human rights defender Igor Kalyapin told the Moscow Times.
