As of: February 28, 2024, 7:25 p.m
By: Nadja Zinsmeister
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Press
Split
Alexeyj Navalny died in the Russian “Polar Wolf” prison camp.
Inmates who survived speak of a dark time in prison.
Moscow - Russian Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was considered one of the most steadfast opposition figures in Russia.
Navalny not only endured several prison sentences and was doused with antiseptic on the street, but in 2020 he even fought his way back to life after a serious poison attack.
Now the opposition leader is dead. On February 16, Alexey Navalny died in the Russian penal colony IK-3 in Charp in the Arctic Circle, also known by the unofficial name “Arctic Wolf”.
The area in the far north of the country is “God-forsaken,” said the long-time ARD correspondent in Russia, Thomas Roth, in the
Maischberger
program .
In winter it can get as cold as -30 degrees.
“The only thing you can really do is die.”
After Navalny's death: prisoners report extreme conditions in the “Polarwolf” penal camp
Reports from former prisoners make it clear how close prisoners in the prison camp in particular are to death every day.
In addition to the temperatures, the extreme prison conditions are said to cause suffering.
“You get out of the truck and they start hitting you from all sides with a stick,” a former inmate told the Russian daily
Novye Izvestia
back in 2018 .
They “hit you with all their might on the head, the neck, the back, wherever they can.
There’s no way to avoid it, there’s a dense corridor of guards and everyone is hitting you.”
A rare view of the entrance to the Charp prison camp.
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
At that time, all inmates were thrown half-naked onto the street every day during the morning inspection and hosed down with a fire hose.
There was no medical help for health problems.
Torture in the form of choking, beatings and uncomfortable stays in tiny cells were apparently part of everyday life.
Anyone who lodged a complaint or defended themselves was punished again.
“It’s impossible to describe everything,” said the former inmate, who goes by the pseudonym Mikhail.
"I'll never forget it."
The report agrees with statements from other inmates who told the US broadcaster BBC about their experiences.
They described being punished for others' violations by having to stand outside without a coat in the winter.
Those who do not stand still would be doused with cold water.
In the summer, prisoners are said to be forced to undress to the waist amid swarms of mosquitoes.
The map shows how remote the Russian “Polar Wolf” prison camp really is.
© F. Bökelmann/dpa
Alexeyj Navalny tried never to let the torment in the “Arctic Wolf” show.
Shortly after his arrival, the opposition activist joked on
Further reports make it clear how much Navalny must have suffered during his time in prison.
In the Maischberger
program,
Nobel Peace Prize winner and co-founder of the Russian civil rights organization
Memorial
, Irina Scherbakova, also reported on daily torture methods that are apparently used in the prison camp.
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Prisoners in the “Polarwolf” penal camp are tortured in a variety of ways
Guards in the prison would, among other things, torture with temperatures, as there would be either extreme cold or extreme heat in the special cells where Navalny was housed most of the time.
To drink there is sometimes boiling hot water, which must be drunk immediately.
“The conditions under which he lived cannot be imagined in the West,” Scherbakova said.
Russian lawyers confirmed
extreme conditions on site to the Russian-language news portal
Meduza .
Essentially, the program in the prison camp in Charp is “legalized torture.”
Even the public prosecutor's office had considered intervention necessary in the past and reported violations of, among other things, occupational safety and hygiene regulations.
Ultimately, however, the prosecutor's supervision of prisons in Russia is just a formality.
Changes are therefore not foreseeable.
(nz)