Alexei Navalny imprisoned in the worst prison in Russia

“I am woken up every hour at night. It’s like the novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’”

The Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny talked about the prison he is held at via social media on Monday.

According to Sputnik, Navalny met his legal faculty at the IK-2 correctional center in Pokrov on Monday. After talking to lawyers about his circumstances, he posted a picture of himself with a shaved head on Instagram.

He compared the prison to “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” George Orwell’s novel depicting a dystopia where everything is watched at any time, saying that there are cameras everywhere to watch prisoners. “At the slightest violation, they make a report. Some days prisoners are woken up every hour.”

The IK-2 correctional center in Pokrov, about 60 miles east from Moscow, is considered to be one of the four worst prisons in Russia. It is where Russian political offenders are imprisoned and under criticism for completely destroying prisoners with not only physical violence, such as habitual beating, but also psychological abuse.

The Guardian said it is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pressure on a political enemy to cause a nervous breakdown for Navalny. The former leader of the Russian opposition Progress Party was poisoned allegedly by the Russian government in August last year and was treated in Berlin, Germany. Upon his return to Russia on January 17, he was arrested at the airport and imprisoned last month for violated probation.


Youn-Jong Kim zozo@donga.com