'Not Able To See The Sky': Report Reveals Last Days Of Russia's Oppn Leader Alexei Navalny's In Prison
Alexei Navalny's body was handed over to his mother on Saturday in the Arctic city of Salekhard.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose body was handed over to his mother on Saturday in the Arctic city of Salekhard, had given accounts of his time in prison from a punishment cell in the Polar Wolf before his death, as reported by The Guardian. Navalny’s body was handed over to his mother nine days after he died unexpectedly in prison.
According to The Guardian, Navalny had said that inside a punishment cell he was not able to see the sky, and he had had to choose between eating his breakfast and writing letters to friends and acquaintances in the past, as he had just 30 minutes.
His mother came for a rare visit a few days before his death. “I don’t want to hear any condolences,” she later wrote, as quoted by The Guardian. “We saw our son in the colony on the 12th, we had a visit. He was alive, healthy, and cheerful.”
According to The Guardian, during his time in prison, Alexei Navalny was roused with the words “Wake up!” each morning at 5am as the Russian national anthem played on the prison loudspeakers. It was always dark in the polar night above the Arctic Circle, and the temperature outside could fall below -30C (-22F).
In one of his last accounts from a punishment cell in the Polar Wolf, Navalny wrote that after the Russian national anthem a second song began: "I am Russian" – a nationalistic anthem by the pro-Kremlin pop star Shaman that has become a favourite at patriotic rallies, as per The Guardian. “So imagine the scene”.
To keep himself warm, the Russian leader would have a sheepskin coat and an ushanka hat in a prison colony better known by its nickname ‘the Polar Wolf’, as reported by The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, the Russian opposition leader spent his last days in Russia’s IK-3 prison, a harsh penal colony above the Arctic Circle that was built in 1961 on the site of the 501st gulag. He stayed there from late December until his death on 16 February.
Navalny was well aware that he might never leave prison alive. “This is one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of Russia, with extreme climatic conditions,” says Olga Romanova, the founder and head of the Russian prisoner advocacy organisation Russia Behind Bars, as quoted by The Guardian. “Of course, there is no public oversight there – but that’s like everywhere else.”
Navalny's Family Accuses Putin For His Death
Navalny's family and supporters have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having him killed. The accusation has been rejected by Kremlin. According to Reuters, the Russian leader survived a poisoning attempt in 2020 and years of harsh treatment in prison, including long spells in solitary confinement.
On Thursday, Navalny's team took to X and said that his death certificate says he died of natural causes. In a video recorded before the release of the body, Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya accused "demonic" Putin of "torturing" the corpse of a political opponent, as reported by Reuters.
Navalny's allies urged supporters "not to relax" and his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, wrote on X there was no certainty that the authorities in Russia would let relatives hold a funeral "the way the family wants and the way Alexei deserves."
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies urged Russia to clarify the circumstances around Navalny's death fully and to free "all unjustly detained prisoners". "We will hold those culpable for Navalny's death accountable, including by continuing to impose restrictive measures in response to human rights violations and abuses in Russia and taking other actions," the G7 added, as quoted by Reuters.
On Friday Navalny's mother Lyudmila said Russian investigators were refusing to release his body from a morgue in Salekhard until she agreed to lay him to rest without a public funeral.
She said an official had told her that she should agree to their demands, as Navalny's body was already decomposing. On Saturday, Navalny aides said the authorities had threatened to bury him in the remote prison colony where he died unless his family agreed to their conditions.
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