Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is serving his sentence in the IK-6 maximum security prison in the Vladimir region, was sent to a punitive solitary confinement cell for the 10th time on December 31 last year. Navalny received the maximum possible term – 15 days – for washing his face before the scheduled time, according to a post on the politician’s Instagram page.
“I managed to earn my tenth consecutive solitary confinement last year. My prison ghouls weren't lazy and convened their commission on the weekend of December 31 just for me.”
According to Navalny, the surveillance operator recorded that he washed his face at 5:24 a.m., when he was supposed to get up at 5 a.m. and wash his face at 6 a.m. – six minutes ahead of schedule.
“My plans for a fancy New Year's Eve were ruined – I had prepared a pack of potato chips and a can of fish [to celebrate]. So I spent the New Year in the punishment cell with my old friends: the hobo (he was sad) and the psycho (he was howling and shouting outside the door).”
A convict who had been previously held in the prison’s medical unit with flu patients was also recently transferred to Navalny's punishment cell. Kira Yarmysh, an associate of the opposition leader, reported that Navalny fell ill soon after the convict was admitted to the SHU cell.
“Unfortunately, the bacteriological weapon worked. Navalny is now in a SHU cell with a fever and cough. We’re trying to give him medicine,” tweeted Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev.