Strict regime Russian penal colony in the Ivanovo Oblast courtesy of Wikimedia image by
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The UK Telegraph reveals:
Inside Polar Wolf, the sadistic centrepiece of Putin’s gulag archipelago
In winter temperatures of -30C, prisoners are ordered to gather outside for morning roll call wearing only light clothing. In spring, swarms of mosquitoes bite through their uniforms. If any of the prisoners flinch, the group is hosed down with water.
Beatings and naked stints in isolation cells are common. Guards force prisoners to march between blocks, sing patriotic songs and recite the Russian national anthem.
The prison, where Alexei Navalny, Russia’s top opposition leader, died in mysterious circumstances, is part of a network of about 700 penal colonies scattered across the country.
Among the more than 460,000 inmates locked up inside are the Kremlin’s political prisoners – Russian opposition leaders, Western journalists, civil society leaders and activists – who fell foul of Vladimir Putin’s regime.
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The conditions they are subjected to in prison are often tantamount to a death sentence.
In the words of one Russian lawyer, the Polar Wolf colony, high in the Russian Arctic, is “essentially legalised torture”, designed to break prisoners physically and mentally.
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“Renowned for their austere conditions, Russian penal institutions inflict profound and lasting physical and psychological harm on inmates, effectively maiming their lives and rendering many individuals permanently disabled,” she said.
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Analysts said that even in prison, Navalny’s defiance threatened Putin.
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Many opponents of Putin, like Boris Nemtsov, a politician, or Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist, have simply been shot dead. Others, like Alexander Litvinenko, have been poisoned.
Untold numbers have fallen from windows, died in car accidents or drowned.
But the majority of Putin’s critics and opponents are simply locked up and left to die in Russia’s prisons….For Navalny, though, his anticipated death in a Russian prison was also an opportunity to challenge the Kremlin with a rallying call for his supporters.
“My message if I am killed is very simple,” he said in a video recorded before he left Germany for Russia in 2021. “Don’t give up.”
Glory to Ukraine!
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