Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been located in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, his spokeswoman said on Monday (December 25), after his supporters lost touch with him for more than two weeks. In a post on X, Kira Yarmysh said Navalny is in the IK-3 penal colony, also known as “the Polar Wolf” colony, in Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets region, which is about 1,900 km 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 a look at penal colonies in Russia, what conditions exist there, when they were set up, and why Navalny has been sent there. What are penal colonies in Russia? Penal colonies of Russia are known for their harsh living conditions. They are descendants of gulags — the Stalin-era forced labour camps that existed throughout the Soviet Union and where more than a million died. However, the treatment of prisoners in these facilities has improved from earlier, according to a report by The New York Times. There are around 700 penal colonies across Russia housing an estimated half a million prisoners. Prisoners are placed in barracks instead of individual cells and are forced to perform daily labour. A report by Al Jazeera said prisoners in such colonies are divided into four categories based on the severity of the crime committed. The IK-3 or Polar Wolf penal colony, where Navalny has been found, is considered to be the toughest prison in Russia. It was established in the 1960s for prison workers building a railway across the Russian Arctic, on instructions of Stalin, but never finished in full, another NYT report said. What are the conditions in penal colonies? According to rights group Amnesty International, conditions in colonies and prisons are “among the worst in Europe”. For instance, in the Polar Wolf, “inmates endure long, dark, cold winters as well as clouds of mosquitoes in the summer,” the NYT report added. Winters are particularly tough as temperatures drop to around minus 28 degree Celsius in December. In a 2021 interview, Navalny, who was at the time in a different penal colony, said his routine involved callisthenics, cleaning the yard, games of chess or backgammon, and five daily sessions of screen time where inmates are made to watch state television and propaganda films. American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was temporarily held at the IK-2 female penal colony in the small town of Yavas, was given books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky to read. Notably, most of the penal colonies are situated in remote locations, far from cities, making it difficult for family or human rights workers to visit. Russia's penal colonies mirror institutions in other countries where inmates have to face brutal living conditions. Take the example of the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Colorado, also known as the ADX. The prisoners at the facility spend approximately 23 hours each day in solitary confinement in their 7-by-12-foot concrete cells. Why has Navalny been sent to the Polar Wolf colony? Previously, Navalny, who is a Vladimir Putin critic, was kept in a penal colony 235 km east of Moscow, where his lawyer could drive to in a matter of hours. His transfer to a more distant penal colony could be because the Russian authorities want to isolate Navalny ahead of the March presidential election, according to his lawyers. The opposition leader is currently serving a 19-year prison sentence and has been slapped with numerous charges, including that of corruption, embezzlement of funds, and extremism. Navalny has denied all the allegations and claimed that the charges are fabricated as authorities want to keep him out of public life and politics.
