Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny described his conditions of imprisonment, described as "
psychological violence
" worthy of a "
Chinese labor camp
", in an interview with the New York Times published on Wednesday, the first since his imprisonment in January 2021.
Read also Navalny affair: Putin hardens his showdown with the West
“
Imagine something like a Chinese labor camp, where everyone walks in a row and there are cameras everywhere. The control is constant and there is a culture of denunciation,
”said this 45-year-old former lawyer in a 54-page handwritten exchange. He details the course of his days, mainly devoted according to him to watching Russian state television or propaganda films. "
You have to sit on a chair and watch television (...) Read, write or do anything else
" is prohibited.
"
Everything is organized so that I am controlled as much as possible every hour of the day,
" he says, denouncing "
psychological violence
".
During his first weeks in prison, the guards woke him several times a night, he says.
“
I now understand why sleep deprivation is one of the secret service's favorite torture methods (...) It leaves no mark and it's unbearable.
"
"
An accident of history
"
He also describes his incarceration in lighter terms, confident that he has not been attacked or threatened by his fellow inmates, with whom he sometimes cooks.
“
It's fun,
” he says.
The New York Times describes him as remaining "
optimistic
" despite the circumstances, especially with regard to the political situation in Russia.
Read alsoThe spy who saw in Putin an "icon"
"
Putin's regime is an accident of history, it is not inevitable,
" he wrote, considering that the 1999 appointment of Vladimir Putin, then Prime Minister, as interim president by Boris Yeltsin, had been a "
Error
" which would be fixed "
sooner or later
". “
And Russia will join a path of democratic and European development. Quite simply because it is what the people want.
He also criticized European and US sanctions against Russia, which he said hurt ordinary Russians, reports The New York Times.
Alexei Navalny was imprisoned in February in a high-security penal colony in Pokrov, about 100 kilometers east of Moscow, where he is to serve a sentence of 2.5 years. He was convicted in a 2014 fraud case that he and many Western capitals and NGOs denounce as political.
