Alexey Navalny placed in solitary confinement for 20th time

Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement for the 20th time since he was jailed in 2021 on charges of embezzlement, his associates reported on Friday.

Navalny said that having been released from his 19th spell in solitary confinement at 5 PM on Thursday, he was returned at 8AM on Friday for another four days. “Why for such a short term? Because in exactly 4 days I have an appeal hearing. So that the colony can say: ‘We’re not violating his rights, he’s not even in solitary confinement. Such nice guys,” Navalny’s team wrote on his socials.

Navalny was placed in solitary confinement for the 19th time on 12 September.

In early August, Navalny was sentenced to 19 further years in prison in extremely harsh conditions for the alleged creation of an “extremist community” and for “sponsoring extremism”. He is only allowed two short and one long family visits per year. Navalny was originally sentenced in 2021 to 2.5 years on charges of embezzlement, receiving additional nine years in prison on similar charges in March 2022.