Russia: Navalny sues his prison over winter boots - 'Don't laugh now'
Created: 11/21/2022, 21:03
By: Kathrin Reikowski
Alexei Navalny during a hearing in the Moscow City Court.
© Uncredited/Moscow City Court/AP/dpa
The Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is suing the high-security prison in which he is being held.
He justifies this on Twitter – and addresses his followers.
Russia - "I've arrived at the bottom of Maslow's pyramid," wrote Alexei Navalny on Twitter about his team from the high-security prison in Russia.
"You know, that pyramid from the textbooks where you want to survive and eat at the bottom, and go to the theater, be a rock star, or be a monk at the top."
While the "progressive public" was discussing the international situation on Twitter, he was suing his "prison colony and demanding that they provide me with winter boots," Navalny said on Monday.
"Don't laugh now." Already "weeks" ago, the prison had been switched to winter clothing.
"My vicious jailers are brazenly not giving me my winter boots."
Navalny is in prison east of Moscow - possibly for up to 30 years
The 46-year-old is being held near the city of Vladimir, around 230 kilometers east of Moscow.
Temperatures there on Monday were minus six degrees.
Navalny is serving a nine-year prison sentence there.
In October he announced that new charges would be brought against him, which could carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
In Germany he had recovered from a poison attack.
"My yard is an area of ice, smaller than my cell," writes Navalny.
"But that's the only hour and a half of fresh air I get." The missing winter boots are an "excellent example of the sneakiness and sophisticated system of pressure exertion" in Russian prisons, Navalny wrote.
"If they don't give you winter boots, it means you don't go for a walk (and you suffer from it) or you go for a walk and get sick (which has happened to me)." Getting sick in prison is "absolutely not recommended." , explained the Russian opposition politician.
There is only one cup of hot water three times a day, in the morning, at noon and in the evening.
It is not possible to get healthy again.
Russia's opposition politician Navalny: "Winter shoes make me vulnerable"
Navalny also addressed his supporters.
He has recently received many letters in which people have written to him about "darkness and depression".
"Pull yourself together.
If you're alive, healthy, and free, it's not all that bad.
Drink your pumpkin latte and do something to bring Russia closer to freedom.”
Alexei Navalny
Referring to the prison guards, Vladimir Putin's adversary writes: “Prison is a never-ending struggle to uncover mutual weaknesses.
And these winter shoes make me vulnerable." (AFP/kat)
