CNN
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Imprisoned Russian dissident Alexey Navalny has been transferred right into a solitary jail cellular, consistent with tweets from himself and his group of workers, in what he described as a transfer designed to “close me up.”
Navalny, a outstanding critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, defined what came about in a Thursday Twitter thread: “Congratulations, I’ve moved up another degree within the hierarchy of jail offenders,” Navalny wrote with irony, including that jail officers moved him to a cramped “cell-type room.”
Cellular-type rooms are used as punishment or to split probably the most bad offenders within the Russian jail machine. Inmates in Russian penal colonies are extra normally housed in barracks as a substitute of cells consistent with a file by means of Poland-based suppose tank the Centre for Japanese Research (OSW).
In his isolation, Navalny stated that he’s allowed simply two books and will use jail commissary, “albeit with an excessively restricted price range.”
However the “actual indescribable bestiality, very function of the Kremlin, which manually controls my complete incarceration,” is the blockading of visits, he stated. His folks, youngsters and spouse have been because of discuss with, however he’s going to now not get to look them, Navalny wrote.
“Alexey Navalny used to be transferred to a cell-type room. It’s like a punishment cellular, handiest now not for 15 days, however perpetually,” wrote his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh on Twitter.
In keeping with the Russian penal code, detention in a cell-type room can not exceed six months. CNN has reached out to Russian jail services and products for remark.
Navalny used to be poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, an assault a number of Western officers and Navalny himself overtly blamed at the Kremlin. Russia has denied any involvement.
After a five-month keep in Germany recuperating from the Novichok poisoning, Navalny remaining yr returned to Moscow, the place he used to be straight away arrested for violating probation phrases imposed from a 2014 case.
Previous this yr, Navalny used to be sentenced to 9 years in jail on fraud fees he stated have been politically motivated.
Whilst Pass judgement on Margarita Kotova learn out the accusations towards him, photos confirmed Navalny as a gaunt determine status beside his attorneys in a room stuffed with safety officers. He seemed unmoved by means of the court cases, having a look via some courtroom paperwork on a desk in entrance of him.
Navalny used to be then transferred in June from a penal colony the place he used to be serving his time period to a better safety jail facility in Melekhovo within the Vladimir Area.
“They’re doing it to close me up,” Navalny stated in Thursday’s Twitter thread about his new jail stipulations. “So what’s my first responsibility? That’s proper, not to be afraid and now not close up,” he writes, urging others to do the similar.
“At each and every alternative, marketing campaign towards the struggle, Putin and United Russia. Hugs to you all.”