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Navalny in prison in early September
Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov / dpa
The imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is apparently confronted with new reprisals in the Russian prison camp: "Congratulations, I've moved up a level in the hierarchy of prison offenders," says Navalny's official Twitter account.
He was transferred to a "cell-like room" and thus back to solitary confinement.
The information cannot be checked exactly, but Navalny's friend and office manager Leonid Volkov confirmed it.
Navalny returned to Russia after a failed poison attack on him in August 2020 and was sentenced to several years in a prison camp for alleged fraud - a further nine years were added in March.
Navalny recently announced that he was facing new criminal proceedings, alleging that he had incited terrorism and financed extremism.
He has been in solitary confinement for a number of periods in prison, including for criticizing the mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
He is also being denied confidential counseling sessions, according to Amnesty International.
A »truly indescribable bestiality, which is very characteristic of the Kremlin«
According to his own statements, Navalny was only allowed to spend a maximum of 15 days in solitary confinement, which is why he has now been transferred from the shared cell with other prisoners to a new form of detention: The “cell-like room” in which he is now is no larger than the solitary cell.
However, he was allowed to take two books with him instead of one, and he was also allowed to use a prison kiosk with a very limited budget.
But he was now not allowed to receive any longer visitors at all.
According to his office manager, Volkov, it is the authorities' intention to keep Navalny in this type of solitary confinement permanently.
Navalny called the visit restriction a "truly indescribable bestiality, very characteristic of the Kremlin, which manually controls my entire detention."
According to this, a planned longer visit to his family had been prevented several times: Originally, the visit had been promised after his arrival in the penal colony, "but they didn't allow it and said I had to wait four months.
So I waited,” writes Navalny.
Three days before the new date, he was transferred to a stricter form of detention "where visits are only allowed once every six months".
So he had to wait even longer.
Eventually, four days before the now envisaged date, he was transferred to the "cell-like room," where no long visits were allowed at all.
"My mother and father had already packed their bags, one of the children was supposed to come, Julija too," Navalny wrote.
Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaja have a son and a daughter.
He further commented: "So I will not have any more visits and the administration is happy that they can please their superiors."
The reprisals are another attempt to silence him, wrote the opposition figure.
His first duty is therefore "not to be afraid and not to keep his mouth shut".
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