JAILED Kremlin arch-critic Alexei Navalny has been locked away in solitary confinement a day after his team published the names of 200 “warmongers” who they claim should be sanctioned.
Speaking from his cell in the strict regime maximum security colony at Melekhovo, Navalny claimed Vladimir Putin is desperate to silence him, as he is angry the defiant list was made public.
Alexei Navalny has been locked away in solitary confinement for ‘being too politically active’[/caption]
The Melekhovo colony has a reputation for violence[/caption]
“I’m back in the SHU [Special Housing Unit],” Navalny wrote in an update on his Facebook profile.
“They let me out Sunday night, and Monday afternoon they locked me up again, making no secret of the fact that I won’t be getting out of this hole again.
“The SHU is obviously a hellish closet and is utterly unpleasant.”
Putin’s foe said he had initially been locked away for three, then five, then seven days, and expects to remain cooped up in isolation for another 15 days because he is considered to be “too politically active for a prisoner”.
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It comes a day after his team, known as the International Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF, or MFBK) published a list of 200 oligarchs it accuses of being “directly responsible for the aggressive war launched against Ukraine.”
The list of 200 names is part of a wider “List of 6,000” Putin accomplices and Russian war enablers.
The list was drawn up at the request of the British Foreign Office.
“The Kremlin‘s really furious at our work to promote the “List of 6,000” – the list of oligarchs, bribetakers and warmongers, against whom sanctions must be imposed,” Navalny said.
“The people on the list are very worried and are demanding measures to be taken to make the ACF (and me personally) ‘back off’.”
He continued: “Their message is: Don’t think we’re too embarrassed to keep you in the SHU for ridiculous reasons. You want us banned from going to Nice and London? Fine, then you’ll not just sit in jail, but on an iron stool in a 2×3 metre cell eating nothing but slop.”
Navalny added: “Right now only 46 of Putin’s top 200 oligarchs on the Forbes list are under sanctions. Propagandists calling for murders are taking weekend trips to Berlin.
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“This situation is absolutely comfortable for Putin’s elite – the couple of thousand families for whose prosperity this regime exists and for whose sake Putin is waging this war.”
According to the Kremlin’s arch-critic, immediately imposing sanctions on the 200, then on the 6,000 contentious individuals could “shatter the status quo” and ultimately lead to a shift in their loyalty to Putin.
This comes as a number of Putin’s chiefs have been blown up, poisoned and shot by the strongman’s enemies as the “net closes on the Russian tyrant“.
Those targeted in the List of 200 include Russian military officials, oligarchs, federal ministers, lawmakers, journalists, celebrities and law enforcement officials.
Navalny’s team highlighted the “propagandist” role of six individuals: Finance Minister and Security Council member Anton Siluanov, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina, businessman Iskandar Makhmudov, and television TV journalist Yekaterina Andreyeva and Georgian-born anchor Tina Kandelaki.
Celebrities present in the target list include actor Marat Basharov, singers Nikolai Baskov, Yulia Chicherina, and Filipp Kirkorov, as well as ultranationalist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin.
Lawmaker Adam Delimkhanov; and businesswoman Svetlana Krivonogikh – who is regarded as one of Putin’s former romantic partners – also appear on the list.
In June, Navalny was moved to Melekhovo as part of the start of the 45-year-old’s nine-year sentence in a case that opposition supporters and the West have described as politically motivated.
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Melekhovo penal colony is notorious for the rape and torture of inmates.
Navalny is described as the critic Putin “fears the most” by the Washington Post.
Navalny is a fierce critic of Putin’s regime[/caption]
