Navalny breaks silence with Christmas joke after being ‘lost’ in Russia’s Gulag system
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has sent an upbeat Christmas message despite going missing for 20 days before reappearing in a remote Arctic prison.
Mr Navalny joked that he had used his secret, 20-day transfer to the snow-swept IK-3 penal colony, located about 1,900km (1200 miles) northeast of Moscow and known as “Polar Wolf”, to grow a beard like the one sported by Father Christmas.
“I am your new Santa Claus … [and] now live above the Arctic Circle. In the village of Kharp on Yamal,” he said in a series of posts on X.
“I don’t say ‘Ho-ho-ho’, but I do say ‘Oh-oh-oh’ when I look out of the window, where I can see a night, then the evening, and then the night again,” Mr Navalny added.
“Unfortunately, there are no reindeer but there are huge fluffy and very beautiful shepherd dogs.”
Colleagues of Mr Navalny panicked after they lost contact with him three weeks ago.
The 47-year-old, the most prominent domestic rival of president Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on an extremism conviction which he has dismissed as politically-motivated.
He was previously imprisoned in central Russia’s Vladimir region, about 140 miles east of Moscow, before being transferred to IK-3 in a move that saw authorities provide no information about where he was being taken.
The Soviet-era penal colony mainly holds murderers and rapists. It lies in a barren and iced-over region of the Arctic and is regarded as one of the coldest and most repressive prisons in Russia.
Former inmates have described how IK-3 is designed to make prisoners feel “completely hopeless” and crush “any rebellious spirit”.
They have also complained of torture and abuse.
Located about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the prison was reportedly founded in the 1960s as part of what was once the Gulag system of forced Soviet labour camps.
Mr Navalny said he thought it would be weeks before anybody found him in his new surroundings because he was transferred via a highly convoluted route.
“I was transported with such precaution and on such a strange route that I didn’t expect anyone to find me here before mid-January,” he said.
“That’s why I was very surprised when the cell door was opened yesterday with the words: ‘A lawyer is here to see you’. He told me that you had lost me, and some of you were even worried. Thanks very much for your support!” Mr Navalny added.
Despite what he described as an exhausting journey and the penal colony’s “movie” like conditions featuring machine guns, shepard dogs and snow-clad buildings, Mr Navalny said that he was still in a “good mood, as befits Santa Claus”.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m totally relieved that I’ve finally made it,” he added.
Mr Navalny’s supporters said the transfer was arranged to keep him out of sight amid Putin’s announcement that he will run for another term as president in an upcoming March election.
The Russian president has repeatedly moved to curtail Mr Navalny’s influence in recent years after he galvanised anti-Kremlin protests prior to his imprisonment in 2021.
He was convicted after voluntarily returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been treated for poisoning with Novichok, a nerve agent, allegedly ordered by Moscow.
Mr Navalny, who denies all the charges he has been convicted of, regularly sends out messages from prison through his lawyers.
Often sharply humorous, the messages are typically posted onto X by his colleagues, who are now based in Lithuania.
Following his latest ordeal, observers described Mr Navalny’s resilience as remarkable.
“There is something quite indomitable about Navalny’s capacity to retain a sense of humour in such terrible conditions,” said Mark Galeotti, a professor at UCl and author of several books on Russia.
