Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was transferred to a penal colony outside Moscow to serve his prison sentence, according to reports.
Navalny was transferred on Thursday, a public commission said on Sunday. The penal colony, located in the city of Pokrov, in the Vladimir region, is about three hours from Moscow.
Navalny will spend two and a half years in prison, Reuters reported.
In this photo provided by the Moscow City Court, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in the cage during a hearing in a motion by the Russian prison service to convert Navalny’s suspended sentence from the 2014 criminal conviction into a royal prison sentence in the city. Moscow Court in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, February 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP)
Prison conditions are said to be severe, with “extremely strict” measures.
“Prisoners who spent time in different prisons across Russia told me that this was the most difficult one they have ever been in,” Konstantin Kotov, who spent two years in prison, told The Moscow Times. “It definitely looked like a high security prison for serious criminals.”
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The detainees allegedly cooperate with the prison administration to help control other detainees, a local activist told Reuters.
“If there is a need to prevent Navalny from communicating with other people, no one will speak to him,” said Ruslan Vakhapov, a group activist for the rights of prisoners Jailed Russia. “(If anything happens), he won’t be able to ask for help until his lawyer arrives.”
Navalny will be quarantined before his term as a precaution against the coronavirus.
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“It is completely illegal there,” Pyotr Kuryanov, a lawyer for the NGO Foundation for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights, told TMT. “They will break you. Bad things have happened there for a long time.”
Navalny’s sentence is related to a 2014 fraud case that the European Court of Human Rights found to be illegal, arbitrary and politically motivated. Russia is actually part of the jurisdiction of the European court, so its decision is technically important, not just morally.
Navalny was arrested on his return from Germany to Russia, where he had been treated after suffering a Novichok attack on his life.
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Navalny has repeatedly stated that he has not fled Russia – he was transported out of the country while in a coma after the attempt on his life.
Amy Kellogg of Fox News contributed to this report