Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny in solitary confinement yet again - Twitter feed

Published 08/30/2022, 09:21 AM
Updated 08/30/2022, 09:27 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a screen via a video link from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence in Moscow, Russia May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evge

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a screen via a video link from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence in Moscow, Russia May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evge

LONDON (Reuters) - Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny said on Tuesday that he had been thrown into solitary confinement for the third time this month to punish him for his political activity.

President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic inside Russia is serving 11-1/2 years in a high-security penal colony after being convicted of parole violations, fraud and contempt of court - charges that he says were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions and smother dissent.

In a post on his Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Instagram accounts, each with millions of followers, Navalny wrote via his lawyers that he had been sent to a punishment cell for seven days for introducing himself incorrectly.

"The fact is that I am 'too politically active for a prisoner'," he wrote. "The prisoners' union I created is a source of great irritation: 'We didn't put him in jail for him to create labor unions here'."

Navalny said the campaign of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), banned in Russia, to have international sanctions extended to more of Russia's rich and powerful had prompted those people to demand measures to make him and the foundation "back off".

The Federal Penitentiary Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Navalny restated his opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine.

"I'm no worse off than many others, I don't have bombs falling on me here. I hate this war, and me and my colleagues at the ACF are trying to do something to bring it to an end," he said.

"Putting pressure on Putin's corrupt elite to the point of splitting it is what we need now."

Last week, Navalny said he had received a similar five-day punishment for briefly walking without his hands behind his back.

On Aug. 15, he said he had been thrown into a punishment cell for three days failing to do up the top button on his prison uniform, which he said was too small.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a screen via a video link from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence in Moscow, Russia May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo

In his latest post, he said the punishment cell meant sitting "on an iron stool in a 2x3-metre cell eating nothing but slop".

Navalny was arrested last year when he voluntarily returned to Russia from Germany, where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was a near-fatal attempt to poison him in Siberia with a Soviet-era nerve toxin. Russia denies trying to kill him.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.