Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years of severe prison in 2023 for extremism. He was in punishment cells at least 27 times, for things like not fastening the last button of a narrow shirt.

The treatment of dissidence in Putin's time incorporates characteristics of perversity, sadism and total indifference to human life. The cruelty with which the system treated Navalni and treats other prisoners who can be considered political has nothing to do with the interests of Russia, he says.