Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny sent to brutal penal colony

Russia has ruthlessly silenced one of its most vocal critics, sending him to a penal colony where he’ll be disciplined with “psychological methods”.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sent to a brutal penal colony south of Moscow for two-and-a-half years. Picture: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP

Russia has sentenced its most high-profile political critic to two-and-a-half years in a penal colony for a parole violation.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted of violating his parole while recovering in a Berlin hospital last year after being poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent – which he alleged was at the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A former inmate of the penal colony where Navalny is thought to have been sent, Konstantin Kotov, told The Times the facility is brutal and said any inmate sent there “just disappears”.

“The administration completely controls the convicts. You can’t do anything which is not in the daily schedule,” he said.

For his own punishment, Kotov said fellow prisoners were barred from talking to him as a type of “psychological pressure”. He said the guards would “think up something similar for Alexei”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP

Navalny will spend more than two years here: Penal Colony No 2. Picture: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP

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Navalny, who leads the Russia of the Future party and is founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, was taken from jail over the weekend and his whereabouts were temporarily unknown, according to local reports.

On Sunday it was confirmed the 44-year-old had arrived at the Russian facility by a Moscow’s Public Commission, an organisation which defends the rights of prisoners in the country.

“We have 100 per cent information that Navalny arrived in the Vladimir region to serve his sentence,” Alexei Melnikov, a member of the Commission said.

“At first, he will be in quarantine, then he will be transferred to his colony,” he said.

Reports now claim Navalny’s final destination will be penal colony No. 2, in the town of Pokrov – 100km east of Moscow.

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Navalny’s arrest sparked protests across Russia. Picture: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP

The bleak landscape of the penal colony where Navalny has been sent. Picture: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP

Navalny’s parole violation conviction came after a 2014 suspended sentence over fraud, that the European Court of Human Rights has deemed “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable”.

On August 20 last year, he fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. Supporters had him evacuated to Germany for treatment where doctors said clinical findings indicated Navalny had been poisoned by nerve agent Novichok. The opposition leader claims the poisoning was ordered by Mr Putin – a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

After months spent recovering in Germany, he returned to Moscow, where he was immediately arrested.

His arrest sparked a wave of protests through the country, and a brutal police crackdown on demonstrators.

Last week the European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to release Navalny, saying his life was in danger in prison. The order was swiftly rejected by Moscow.

On Friday, the head of Russia’s prison service said Navalny would serve his sentence in “absolutely normal conditions” and “guaranteed” there was “no threat to his life”.

The imprisonment of Navalny has worsened Russian relations with the West – already at their lowest point since the Cold War.

Western leaders have condemned Navalny’s detention and called for his immediate release, and the European Union has agreed to impose sanctions on four senior Russian officials in response.

– with AFP