Navalny says subjected to 'educational activities' in prison

MOSCOW, July 1 — Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said today he was made to sit for hours under a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he described his daily routine in his new prison.

His allies including Leonid Volkov and Kira Yarmysh said his new routine was a form of "torture."

Last month Putin's top foe was transferred to a strict-regime penal colony described by his allies as "one of Russia's scariest prisons". He was taken there after his jail time was extended to nine years in March, in a move supporters say is punishment for challenging Putin.

Describing his life at the new prison, near the town of Vladimir east of Moscow, Navalny said he had to sew for seven hours five days a week.

"After work, you continue to sit. For several hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin," he said in a post on Facebook.

"This is called 'educational activities,'" he said.

Navalny was made to sit on a wooden bench even on Sunday, his official day off.

"In the Putin administration, or wherever my unique routine was conceived, they know a thing or two about rest," he quipped.

"On Sundays, we sit on a wooden bench in a room for 10 hours," he added.

"I don't know who such activities can 'educate', except for a crooked invalid with a bad back," he said. "But maybe that's the purpose."

Navalny has described his new jail as a "prison within a prison" and said he was serving time with convicted murderers. He said today his prison barrack was surrounded by a six-metre fence.

Despite his ordeal he said he tried to keep his chin up.

"I am having fun as much as I can," he said.

He added he had learnt a soliloquy from Hamlet at work. He said he was told by his fellow inmates that "when I close my eyes and mumble in Shakespearean English something like 'in thy orisons be all my sins remembered', it looks like I'm summoning demons."

In 2020, Navalny barely survived a poisoning attack with Novichok, a Soviet-designed military-grade nerve agent. He has blamed Russian authorities, but the Kremlin has denied any involvement. — AFP