The World | Agencies
Updated Friday, February 16, 2024-18:36
'Polar Wolf' or IK-3, the prison where Russian opposition leader
Alexei Navalny
died , is located in Jarp, in Russia's northern Arctic region of Yamal-Nenets, very close to the Ural Mountains. The prison, to which Navalny was transferred last December from another located less than 200 kilometers from Moscow, is
about 1,900 kilometers north of the Russian capital
.
It is one of the northernmost prisons,
one of the most remote prisons in the country
. The conditions there are harsh, with a special regime, in a frozen area with permafrost,
perennial ice
. It is very difficult to get to that region and the mail delivery systems used by prisoners in other centers do not exist.
Jarp is less than 50 kilometers from Salekhard, the administrative capital of this territory that has
an area larger than that of France
, but is populated by only
half a million inhabitants
.
According to one of his collaborators in the opposition's exile, Ivan Zhdanov, it is considered one of the most remote prisons of civilization in all of Russia.
Navalny's last days
Navalny has maintained a low profile on social media
in recent days
and also
reduced his video appearances
during court hearings. On the 12th, Navalny's mother, Liudmila Navalnaya, visited her son in this prison. "We had a date on February 12. He was healthy and happy to be alive," Navalnaya wrote on Facebook.
The prison, located in the Arctic region, in an image taken last January. ANTONINA FAVORSKAYAAFP
This Wednesday, the administration of the 'Polar Wolf' prison sent Navalny
to an isolation cell for the fourth time
since his arrival at the end of 2023. Previously, the 47-year-old opposition leader was locked in an isolation cell for 10 days, from February 1 to 11.
That same day, a message is published on Navalny's social networks in his name, addressed to his wife, Yulia, to
congratulate her on Valentine's Day
.
"I feel every second that you are by my side and I love you more and more
," read the congratulatory text, accompanied by a file photo of both of them.
On Thursday, despite being punished, the prison management allowed him to participate in a court hearing by videoconference. During that appearance, the opposition politician criticized with his usual irony the fines that the courts continued to impose on him despite his stay in jail.
"Your majesty, I will send you my bank account number so that you can send me money from your enormous salary as a federal judge, because I am running out of money because of your decisions," he joked.
This Friday, Russian prison authorities announced the sudden death of Navalny. His lawyer has traveled to the town of Jarp to learn first-hand the circumstances of what happened.