Life inside is hidden behind high metal fences and barbed wire around this dilapidated-looking facility in Russia’s Vladimir region, a two-hour drive from the capital, Moscow.
“I had no idea that it was possible to organize a real concentration camp 100 kilometers from Moscow,” said Navalny, adding that his head had been shaved.
“Video cameras are everywhere, everyone is observed and at the slightest violation they make a report. I think someone up there read Orwell’s ‘1984’, ”continued Navalny, referring to the classic dystopian novel.
Life inside the prison in the city of Pokrov may still become more banal, stressful and possibly dangerous, according to a former inmate.
Konstantin Kotov served what he said were two miserable sentences – the first for four months, the second for six months – in Penal Colony No. 2 for violating Russian anti-protest laws.
He was last released in December and was looking forward to returning, but agreed to travel with CNN to explain how the penal colony works internally.
“From the first minutes you are here, you are under mental and moral pressure,” he told CNN.
“You are forced to do things that you would never do in normal life. You are forbidden to speak to other inmates. They force you to learn the list of employee names. You stand up all day, from 6 am to 10 pm You are not allowed to sit. They do not allow you to read, they do not allow you to write a letter. It can last two weeks, it can last three weeks. “
Navalny was sent to prison after a Moscow court on February 2 replaced his suspended sentence with a prison sentence for violations of his probation.
Now that he is confirmed for Penal Colony 2, he must serve the rest of his sentence there.
‘TV Torture’
Kotov, the former inmate, explained that prisoners sleep in barracks in iron bunks. About 50 to 60 men slept in his room, he said, each with only a small amount of space to live in.
“You get up at 6 am, go out to the nearby courtyard and listen to the national anthem of Russia – every day the anthem of the Russian Federation,” he said.
“You cannot write, you cannot read. For example, I watched TV almost all day, Russian federal channels. This is torture for TV.”
It is what he calls “meaningless daily activity” that Kotov says sets the tone, but there are constant corrections for any perceived wrongdoing.
“I was scolded for not saying hello to an employee and for having opened the top button,” said Kotov.
The slightest breach could lead a prisoner to solitary confinement, Kotov said, perhaps for months at a time.
Order is maintained by both prison guards and inmates known as “servants” who cooperate with the prison administration.
Although the ordinance is also a convict, Kotov said, they should report anyone who does not follow the limits.
“They are like spies who follow your every step and report them to the government,” said Kotov.
Alexander Kalashnikov, of the Federal Prison Service of Russia (FSIN), said that Navalny is being treated like any other prisoner.
“Everything is done within the framework of current law and legislation,” he told reporters in late February.
‘Empire of fear’
Violence can be common in Russian prisons. Disturbing video released by the Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta shows prisoners being beaten by guards at a penal colony in Yaroslavl, a region close to where Navalny is being held. A Russian court has convicted several people for involvement in what has become a national scandal, but ex-convicts say it is not an isolated case.
Kotov says he saw inmates being beaten by servants in Penal Colony No. 2. Most of the time, they unscrewed the leg of a chair and hit people in the heels – painful and imperceptible – he told CNN.
Navalny in his Instagram post said he had not yet witnessed any violence, but he “easily believes the countless stories” of brutality in the colony due to the fear he witnessed among his fellow inmates.
He said he was being woken up every hour by a guard pointing a camera and a light on his face to see if he was there, as it was considered a “risk of flight”.
Kotov said he feared more for Navalny’s mental state than for his physical health, saying he believed Navalny’s high profile would mean that the authorities would not like him to be physically injured.
“They want to deprive you of your voice,” Kotov told CNN. “That is their purpose.”
Prisoner rights expert Pyotr Kuryanov of the Defending Prisoners’ Rights Foundation said the situation was “very dangerous” in the prison camp, which he called “the empire of fear”.
“It is difficult to stay there and keep a cool head and not react to provocations,” he told CNN. “It is extremely difficult psychologically. The smallest possible violation … can lead to a person convicted of serious physical damage.”
Within the ranks of two-story barracks, prisoners can be ordered to clean the floor with toothbrushes and other degrading and useless tasks designed to humiliate, said Kuryanov.
“I don’t exclude that Alexey could be the victim of a nervous breakdown,” he added.