Jailed Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, has been located in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, his spokeswoman said on Monday (December 25), after his supporters had been unable to contact him for more than two weeks.
Kira Yarmysh stated on X that Navalny is in the IK-3 penal colony, also known as “the Polar Wolf” colony, in Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets region, about 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow.
Speaking to Reuters, Yarmysh said: “This prison will be much worse than the one that was before… They are trying to make his life as unbearable as it possibly can be.”
Here is an overview of Russian penal colonies, including what conditions exist, when they were established, and why Navalny was sent there.
What exactly are Russian penal colonies?
Russia’s penal colonies are notorious for their harsh living conditions. They are descended from gulags, the Stalin-era forced labor camps that existed throughout the Soviet Union and were responsible for the deaths of over a million people. According to The New York Times, the treatment of prisoners in these facilities has improved in recent years.
Russia has approximately 700 penal colonies that house an estimated half a million prisoners. Inmates are housed in barracks rather than individual cells and are forced to perform daily labor. According to an Al Jazeera report, prisoners in such colonies are classified into four categories based on the gravity of the crime committed.
The IK-3 or Polar Wolf penal colony, where Navalny was discovered, is regarded as Russia’s most difficult prison. According to another NYT report, it was established in the 1960s for prison workers building a railway across the Russian Arctic on Stalin’s orders, but it was never completed completely.
What are the living conditions like in penal colonies?
Amnesty International claims that conditions in colonies and prisons are “among the worst in Europe.” In the Polar Wolf, for example, “inmates endure long, dark, cold winters as well as clouds of mosquitoes in the summer,” according to the NYT report. Winters are especially harsh, with temperatures as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius in December.
Navalny, who was in a different penal colony at the time, said in a 2021 interview that his routine included calisthenics, yard cleaning, games of chess or backgammon, and five daily sessions of screen time where inmates are forced to watch state television and propaganda films.
Brittney Griner, an American basketball player, was released from the IK-2 female penal colony in the small town of Yavas, was given books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky to read.
Notably, the majority of the penal colonies are located in remote areas far from cities, making visits by family or human rights workers difficult.
Russia’s penal colonies are similar to institutions in other countries where inmates face harsh living conditions. Consider the US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Colorado, also known as the ADX. The facility’s inmates spend approximately 23 hours per day in solitary confinement in their 7-by-12-foot concrete cells.
Why was Navalny dispatched to the Polar Wolf colony?
Previously, Navalny, a critic of Vladimir Putin, was held in a penal colony 235 kilometers east of Moscow, which his lawyer could reach in a matter of hours. According to his lawyers, his transfer to a more distant penal colony could be motivated by Russian authorities’ desire to isolate Navalny ahead of the March presidential election.
The opposition leader is currently serving a 19-year prison sentence on multiple charges, including corruption, embezzlement of funds, and extremism. Navalny has denied all of the allegations, claiming that the charges are made up to keep him out of public life and politics.