The Russian Kremlin critic Aleksej Navalny has reported for the first time from the penal colony where he has to serve a sentence of 2.5 years.
The country’s best-known opposition leader says he is imprisoned in a “real concentration camp”.
In a message on Instagram, he says he has to “admit that the Russian prison system has been able to surprise me”. “I had no idea it was possible to set up a real concentration camp 100 kilometres from Moscow”. He adds that he is in prison camp number 2 in the Vladimir region.
Navalny was first quarantined in a nearby prison in recent weeks after his conviction. He confirms his transfer with his Instagram message. He’s in an extra secure department. The Russian news agency TASS had recently reported that he was in the labour camp.
Shortly before, Navalny’s lawyers had reported that they did not know where he was after he departed from quarantine.
The 44-year-old politician, who positions as one of Putin’s most protuberant critics, was convicted of violating parole. In the West, the verdict has been labelled as politically motivated. Navalny escaped death last year after being poisoned, which may have been the Russian secret service’s work.
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