Even blasphemy was banned, Mr. Navalny wrote. Shocking for a Russian prison: ‘this ban is strictly followed’.
The prison, to which its Russian initials IK2 refers, has long been known for strict enforcement. Lawyers and former inmates have described a separate, harsher penalty facility within the walls where inmates are not allowed to mix or even talk among themselves.
The site is typical of the prisons of Russia’s colony-type prisons that developed with some improvements from the gulag camps established in the 1930s. Prisoners live together in groups of a few dozen called brigades in low-hanging, two-story buildings surrounded by walls and barbed wire.
According to former prisoners, discipline is enforced by prisoners under the supervision of the warden, an arrangement that allows the prison administration to end the life of Mr. Navalny strictly controlled at all times. Prisoners spend hours holding their hands behind their backs and looking at their feet, forbidden to make eye contact with the guards, one former prisoner, nationalist politician Dmitry Dyomushkin, recently told a Moscow radio station. .
Mr. Navalny said on Monday that he was still classified as a flight hazard, meaning he was woken up by a guard every hour of the night with a camera reporting his condition.
The ongoing oversight, Mr. Navalny wrote, reminding him of a dystopian novel: ‘I think someone who is tall has read Orwell’s’ 1984 ‘and said,’ Oh, great. Let’s do it. Education through dehumanization. ‘”
But as he has done repeatedly in recent months, Mr. Navalny is still trying to radiate optimism. He used his prison sentence to show Russians that they were not Mr. Putin need not fear, as long as they believe their side will sooner or later triumph.