Moscow:
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most distinguished opposition chief, spent his last weeks in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
His 19-year jail sentence was extensively condemned by rights teams and within the West as punishment for daring to cross President Vladimir Putin.
By way of messages handed by way of his attorneys, he posted usually on social media in a characteristically optimistic and light-hearted tone.
Here’s what Navalny’s last weeks appeared like, in his personal phrases:
‘Ho-ho-ho’
On December 26, Navalny posted his first message from his new Arctic jail colony, having disappeared for weeks after being moved from his former jail nearer to Moscow.
The icy IK-3 jail colony within the Siberian area of Yamal-Nenets, some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) from his native Moscow, can be the place he spent his last few weeks.
“I am your new grandfather Frost,” Navalny mentioned, in his standard tongue-in-cheek method.
“I have a tulup, an ushanka and I will have valenki soon,” he mentioned, referring to conventional furry Russian winter coats, hats and boots.
“I now live above the Arctic Circle … But I don’t say ‘ho-ho-ho, I say ‘oh-oh-oh’ when I look out the window, where first there is night, then evening, then night again.”
Navalny mentioned he was drained from the 20-day journey from his earlier jail within the central Vladimir area, near Moscow.
“Don’t worry about me, everything is well. I am so happy that I finally got here.”
‘Enthusiastic about Leonardo DiCaprio’
A number of weeks later, after a spell in quarantine, Navalny shared extra particulars about his circumstances within the new Arctic jail.
“The idea that Putin was pleased (enough) that he had put me in a barracks in the Far North that they would stop throwing me in solitary confinement was … naive,” the 47-year-old mentioned.
Jail authorities instructed him: “‘Convict Navalny refused to introduce himself in the correct way’. Seven days in solitary confinement.”
Navalny spent greater than 300 days in solitary confinement — or a “punishment cell” as his colleagues known as it, primarily based on its identify in Russian — throughout his three years in jail.
He was ordered there on 27 events, usually for minor infringements of jail protocol.
Allowed out for a each day stroll within the pitch black of at 6:30 a.m., Navalny mentioned: “I promised myself I would go out in any weather.”
His cell was “11 steps from wall to wall”.
“It has never been colder than minus 32 (Celsius). Even in such a temperature you can walk more than half an hour — only if you have the time to grow back a nose, ears and fingers,” he mentioned in a January 9 publish.
“Today I was walking, freezing and thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio and his trick with a dead horse in The Revenant,” he mentioned, referring to a scene through which his character crawls into an animal carcass to maintain heat.
“I don’t think it would work here. A dead horse would freeze to death within 15 minutes.”
‘I am Russian’
Navalny additionally usually ridiculed jail routines.
On January 22, he mentioned the jail wardens at IK-3 would wake all people up at 5 a.m. to play the Russian nationwide anthem.
“And right after that — the second most important song in the country: Shaman’s ‘Ya Russky,'” he mentioned.
The tune — which implies “I’m Russian” — has change into an unofficial anthem for President Vladimir Putin.
“Imagine the scene. Yamal-Nenets region. Polar night. In a penal colony of convicts, prisoner Navalny serving 19 years — who the Kremlin’s propaganda for years has scolded for taking part in Russian marches — is exercising to ‘Ya Russky'”.
‘Ship me cash’
In a court docket listening to on 15 February — a day earlier than his loss of life — Navalny was filmed joking with the choose over a stream of fines he had been issued.
“Your honour, I will send you my personal account number so that you, with your huge salary as a federal judge, can send me money,” he mentioned, laughing.
“I am running out of cash, and thanks to your decisions, it will run out even faster. So send it!”
‘I really like you’
Navalny’s final publish, printed on Valentine’s Day, was devoted to his spouse, Yulia.
“Baby, you and I have everything, just like in the song: cities, airfield lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometres between us,” he mentioned, quoting a well-liked Soviet-era tune.
“But I feel that you are near me every second, and I love you more and more.”
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)