Despite the threat of torture and icy cold, the Putin critic is still in the mood for fun: Navalny’s new Arctic Circle prison camp is so cruel

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Family and friends of Alexei Navalny (47) breathe a sigh of relief. The Putin critic lives. In recent weeks he has been transferred from the IK-6 penal camp in Melechovo near Vladimir to the IK-3 penal camp, also known as the ‘Polar Wolf’, north of the Arctic Circle.

For three weeks there was no sign of life from Navalny, who was poisoned in 2020 and sentenced to a long sentence in a prison camp after returning to Russia.

Hell awaits Navalny in the new camp in Charp in the autonomous Yamal-Nenets Okrug – about 2,000 kilometers from Moscow. Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov described IK-3, which was established in 1961 on the site of a former Soviet Gulag forced labor camp, as “one of the northernmost and most remote” prison colonies in Russia. A maximum of 1,050 people can be locked up here. Zhdanov: “The conditions there are brutal.”

Escape is virtually impossible

IK-3 has always functioned as a colony for “particularly dangerous repeat offenders,” writes the independent Moscow Times. The weather is bitterly cold and harsh. Escape is practically impossible: on one side there are hundreds of kilometers of tundra, on the other side the mountains of the Arctic-Urals. Next week, minus 28 degrees are expected.

Former IK-3 prisoners report physical and psychological cruelty. There is also a lack of clothing; in some cases only a pair of winter boots and a worn suit are given away. Some prisoners are held in cells without daylight or hot water. Some accuse prison guards of torture.

Cheeky “welcome”

One convict described how newcomers were ‘welcomed’: ‘When the prisoners enter the colony, they are taken to the bathhouse. If someone takes off their clothes and wants to wash, the water is turned off and masked people come in and start beating you.” According to the ex-prisoner, about fifteen people – both prisoners and employees – beat him up for half an hour.

Navalny’s team and activists linked his move to the upcoming presidential election on March 17, in which President Vladimir Putin, 71, is likely to be re-elected, describing it as an attempt to “isolate the politician from the opposition.”

Navalny with a beard

Despite the strict prison conditions, Navalny is – at least for now – in the mood to joke. He had it written down ‘You’re probably wondering about the presents. But I’m a special Santa, so only those who behave badly get presents.”

Unfortunately, he has no reindeer and cannot describe the area because he has not seen the camp from the outside and can almost only see the fence from his cell. Navalny: «And I saw a convoy, not like in central Russia, but like in the movies – with machine guns, warm gloves and felt boots. And with the same beautiful, fluffy German Shepherds.”

A detour to hell

The twenty-day transport took him with great care and detours via Vladimir, Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Kirov and Vorkuta to Charp. “The twenty days of my transport were quite stressful, but I am still in a good mood, as befits a Sinterklaas.”

He was very surprised when the cell door opened on Monday and someone said, “There’s a lawyer for you.” He told him that everyone was worried about him. Navalny: “Thank you very much for your support!”

He didn’t expect anyone to find him before mid-January. “I’m doing well,” he wrote. “I’m so happy I’m finally here.” Will he still say that after being greeted at the bathhouse?

Source: Blick