Navalny published the first letter from the Polar Wolf colony

Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny published the first letter from the correctional colony in the village of Harp of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where he is now located. He thanked everyone for their support and also wrote that he is doing well.

Navalny told the details of his phasing in the personal regime colony, which lasted 20 days and was “quite tiring”.

“They brought me on Saturday evening (December 23). And they took me with such precautions and along such a strange route (Vladimir – Moscow – Chelyabinsk – Yekaterinburg – Kirov – Vorkuta – Harp) that I did not expect that someone would find me here until the middle of January. Therefore, he was very surprised when the cell door was opened yesterday with the words: “You have a lawyer,” wrote Navalny. He also told a little about the conditions of detention in the colony. In particular, that he was taken out for walks to the next cell, on the floor on which there is snow, and what is visible outside the window of his cell is only a fence standing close together. “I look out the window, where first night, then evening, then again night,” added the oppositionist. “Well, I saw a convoy, not the same as in the central Russia, but like in the cinema – with automatic weapons, in warm gloves and felt boots. With the most beautiful fluffy sheepdogs,” writes the oppositionist.

On December 25, Navalny’s associates, who had no contact with him for 20 days, reported that the opposition leader was in a special regime colony in the village of Harp of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. As reported by Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh, his lawyer met with the prisoner, Navalny himself “is fine”.

Colony No. 3 “Polar Wolf” in the village of Harp of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where Navalny is now located, once housed one of Yukos’ co-owners, Platon Lebedev, as well as Ukrainian director and activist Oleg Sentsov. “The conditions there are harsh, with a special regime in the permafrost zone. It is very difficult to get there, and there are no systems for the delivery of letters FSIN-pismo or Zonatelecom”, – notes Navalny’s associate Ivan Zhdanov.

Previously, Navalny was in the strict regime colony number 6 in the Vladimir region. Since December 6, lawyers have stopped being allowed to see him. Subsequently, the Federal Service for the Execution of Sentences announced that Navalny had left the colony on December 11 to another region. Even then there were suggestions that, probably, he would be transferred to a special regime colony – the prisoners there are in harsher conditions. In August, Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison under a special regime on charges of extremist activity. Navalny considers himself innocent, and the sentence is politically motivated. Human rights organizations recognized him as a political prisoner.