Russia's Navalny says he could be put in solitary confinement "close to torture" over minor prison infractions
Moscow — Russia's jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny has said he could be put into solitary confinement, in conditions "close to torture," after being reprimanded by prison officials for a series of minor infractions including things like getting out of bed a few minutes too early. Navalny, 44, is President Vladimir Putin's highest-profile critic, and he is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for violating the terms of a previous suspended sentence.
In an Instagram post made on his behalf on Monday, Navalny said he had received at least 10 reprimands over the past four weeks in two different prisons.
"You get two reprimands and you go to punitive isolation confinement, which is an unpleasant place, conditions there are close to torture," he said.
Navalny was moved earlier this month to a notorious penal colony about 60 miles outside Moscow, known as one of the toughest of its kind in the country, after spending two weeks in another facility closer to the capital.
In the social media post, he said his violations of prison rules included getting out of bed 10 minutes before the official wake-up call and wearing a T-shirt during a meeting with his lawyers. He also refused to go out for morning exercises, telling a prison official: "Let's go have some coffee instead."
His lawyer said the reprimands meant Navalny was also no longer eligible for early parole.
The opposition politician was sentenced to prison last month soon after his return to Moscow from Berlin, where he spent five months recovering from poisoning with the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok.
Navalny's comments about the prospect of being placed in solitary confinement came on the heels of statements last week by his allies and family voicing fear for his health. They said he is suffering intense pain in his back and right leg, and that his appeals for treatment have been ignored.
Navalny has also complained that he is woken up by a guard every hour during the night, which he said also amounts to torture.
Members of a local Public Monitoring Commission, a which monitors Russian prisons, said they visited Navalny on Friday and that he asked for injections of Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug, to reduce his pain. He was still able to walk, according to their online report.
The prison service was not immediately available for comment on the issue but has said previously that his condition is satisfactory.
Navalny has always dismissed all the charges against him as politically motivated. His arrest prompted weeks of mass protests, with thousands rallying on the streets of Russian cities, including the capital.
The United States, the European Union and various individual EU countries have called on Putin's government to release Navalny immediately, but the Kremlin has shrugged off those calls as interference in Russia's internal affairs.