Alexei Navalny had a brutal December. At the start of the month the Putin critic abruptly disappeared from his prison colony in Vladimir, east of Moscow. For 20 days no one knew of his whereabouts until his lawyers tracked him down to the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony of Kharp, deep within the Arctic Circle. Yesterday, he was seen by the public for the first time since his transfer.
Appearing over video link, the gaunt Kremlin critic held a short press conference ahead of his appointment in court to sue the Vladimir colony where he was being held until December. Standing behind a metal grille, head shaved and dressed in a prison jumpsuit, Navalny looked thrilled, and a little relieved, to be allowed to interact with journalists.
The ‘Polar Wolf’ colony where Navalny is now held is one of the harshest in Russia’s penal system
The conditions he’s now being kept in, he said, are ‘much better than in Vladimir’.
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