New details after Navalny’s death: prisoners reveal about Putin’s Arctic wolf

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Alexei Navalny († 47) survived a poison attack and prison in Russia. The prominent Putin critic was then taken to the IK-3 penal colony in Charp in the Arctic Circle, the Arctic Wolf. He died suddenly two months after his transfer. The news caused horror around the world a week and a half ago. The circumstances of his death remain unclear.

According to Navalny’s team, the death certificate indicates a “natural” cause of death – which the opposition politician’s supporters reject. The team on Friday called on members of the police, military and security services to provide them with any information about the ‘murder’. In return, we promise a reward of 20,000 euros.

One thing is clear: the Arctic wolf is tough, the conditions on site would be brutal. It is freezing – down to minus 32 degrees. And the guards take advantage of this to torture the prisoners. A former prisoner said after his stay in the Arctic Wolf: “I remember these walks with just a T-shirt. Terrible.” No one would try to escape. No wonder: on one side are hundreds of kilometers of tundra, on the other the mountains of the Arctic-Urals. Anyone who runs away runs towards certain death.

“It’s essentially legalized torture.”

In early January, Navalny joked about the walks. “Today I went for a walk, was cold and thought about Leonardo DiCaprio and his dead horse trick in ‘The Revenant,’” he wrote on January 9. In the film, actor DiCaprio (49) crawls into a still warm animal carcass to prevent himself from freezing to death. The Putin critic apparently tried not to show the torment in the Arctic Wolf. Abuse is the order of the day. The prisoners were allegedly beaten repeatedly and given electric shocks.

And not only that: “The prisoners get almost nothing to eat. It is torture of hunger,” said Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and co-founder of the human rights organization Memorial, Irina Scherbakova (75), about the ARD program “Maischberger”. When Navalny was given some water to drink, it was boiling hot. Apparently he had to drink it to Ex. A lawyer speaking on condition of anonymity told the Sun: “The conditions there are extremely harsh, it’s essentially legalized torture.”

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-con, about fifteen people – prisoners and employees – beat him up for half an hour.

Anyone who complains goes to the ice cage

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was imprisoned in a nearby colony, said: “As soon as you cross the threshold, they make it clear to you that you have arrived in purgatory.” You have no rights. Therefore, there is no point in complaining. Anyone who breaks the rules or tries to defend themselves against the abuse is locked in a cage and kept there all night.

It gets even colder, especially at night. Not all prisoners would survive. When a prisoner died, the guards would take the body to the infirmary and claim it was a natural death. Heart failure while sleeping. Former prisoners report this. When winter and freezing temperatures are over, mosquitoes and lice will infest the camp. It’s just cruel.

Despite the harsh conditions, Navalny regularly joked about prison routines at his posts. On January 22, he reported that prisoners were woken up every morning at 5 a.m. to the Russian national anthem. The second most important song is ‘Ja Russkij’ (in German: I am a Russian) by Kremlin loyalist Shaman (32). The Kremlin critic last spoke out on Valentine’s Day – with a declaration of love to his wife Yulia Navalnaya (47). News of his sudden death followed shortly afterwards.

All information about the death of Alexei Navalny can be found in our ticker.

Source: Blick