As Sentence Is Upheld, Navalny Describes Prison Hell

A Moscow appeals court has upheld the 19-year sentence handed down in August to Alexei Navalny, who will now be transferred to a different maximum security facility to serve the lengthiest of the three sentences he's been given so far. The Putin critic had been serving a 9-year sentence in Penal Colony No. 6, a maximum-security prison about 150 miles east of Moscow. In a thread posted to his X account Tuesday, Navalny (via his team) described the prison's "monstrous" gruel and the unbearable cold, saying that when in solitary confinement cells, inmates are to wear cold prison uniforms designed to prevent them from getting warm, report NPR and the AP.

His Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was banned by Russia in 2021, responded to Tuesday's decision on X, knocking the extremism case as "fabricated. It consists of 196 volumes and contains 3828 pages of pure nonsense: screenshots from the Internet, blank pages, and ... an omelet recipe." After being convicted on charges of extremism, Navalny had said he expected his sentence to be "huge ... a Stalinist term." His sentence will be backdated to Jan. 17, 2021, the day he was arrested. The appeal took place in a closed hearing with Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs alleging Navalny supporters could otherwise stage "provocations." (More Alexei Navalny stories.)