After Whereabouts Unknown for Weeks, Navalny Speaks From Siberian Penal Colony

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny has spoken about conditions in his new penal colony in northwestern Siberia in the first video conference with journalists since he disappeared in the Russian prison system in December.In a video posted by the independent Russian news outlet Sota on January 10, Navalny can be seen in a small room behind a reinforced window. He told reporters that conditions in “Polar Wolf,” formally the FKU IK-3 prison colony in Russia’s autonomous Yamalo-Nenets district, were much better than in his previous detention center, IK-6, nearer to Moscow.On Tuesday, Navalny’s verified Instagram channel posted the opposition leader’s tongue-in-cheek “review” of Polar Wolf, in which he said “invigorating” 6:30 am walks in -32 Celsius temperatures reminded him of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in the award-winning film The Revenant.The independent Russian news channel Verstka reported that prisoners in IK-3, which is located in the village of Kharp, some 60 km north of the Arctic Circle, have reported experiencing psychological stress in the colony and a lack of access to clothing and household items.Navalny said on Wednesday that his cell was warm and the food “normal.”In early December, Navalny’s team said his lawyer had been unable to see him for several days in a row after December 5, that he had been moved from IK-6, and they did not know where he was located. On December 25, they wrote that Navalny had been found in Polar Wolf after an extensive “block on information” from the authorities.Navalny, a long-time critic of President Vladimir Putin, was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August after he was found guilty of founding and financing an extremist organization. He was already serving a nine-year prison term for fraud, contempt of court, and parole violations. Navalny and his legal team deny all charges. Credit: Antonina Favorskaya/SOTAvision via Storyful