Kremlin critic sentenced to jail Alexei Navalny Accepted his first interview in prison, compared it to a Chinese labor camp, and said that he was forced to watch national television for eight hours a day.
Navalny’s political career was based on exposing corruption Russia, Was detained in a highest security prison in Pokrov, 100 kilometers east of Moscow.
He told New York Times The days of heavy labor in the Soviet Gulag are over-replaced by what he called “psychological violence” of brainwashing and propaganda.
Navalny said: “You might imagine a muscular man with a steel tooth tattoo fighting a knife fight for the best crib by the window.” “You need to imagine a Chinese labor camp, everyone lined up. , With cameras hanging everywhere. There is a culture of continuous control and whistleblowing.”
He said that when they watched the state propaganda for several hours, the guards would watch them, not allow them to read or write, and would wake them up if the prisoners were asleep.
But Navalny remains optimistic about the future of the government Vladimir Putin, Insist that one day it will end.
In an interview published on Wednesday, he said: “Sooner or later, this error will be corrected and Russia will turn to a democratic European development path-just because this is what the people want.”
He also repeatedly criticized the sanctions imposed by the US and European governments on Russia, saying that it hurts the Russian people rather than those in power.
He said he was not beaten by other prisoners, and even said it was “fun” to make snacks with them.
Navalny has not remained silent since he was imprisoned in March. He posted a letter from prison and managed several social media posts, but this interview was the first time since his imprisonment.
Western intelligence agencies assessed with “high confidence” that FSB officials poisoned Navalny with the nerve agent Novijok last year.
The dissident flew to Germany for treatment, but returned stubbornly to Russia in January and was arrested and sent to exile.
The Kremlin denied poisoning Navalny and insisted that his imprisonment was not political.
This month, he was charged with a new crime that could extend his jail time by three years. If found guilty, he can only be released after 2024 (the year Russia plans to hold presidential elections).
Before Russia’s parliamentary poll in September, his movement was under unprecedented pressure, and Putin’s United Russia Party is expected to struggle in this poll.
