A ‘red’ regime

Former inmates on life and death in the Arctic prison where Alexey Navalny died

Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny died in prison on February 16. At the time, he was serving a 19 year sentence in a maximum-security prison north of the Arctic Circle, in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Nicknamed the “Polar Wolf” prison, Correctional Facility No. 3 (abbreviated as IK-3, in Russian) has a notorious reputation. For more insight into the harsh conditions on the inside, Meduza spoke to former inmates who served time there. Here’s what they told us about life and death inside the prison where Alexey Navalny died.

The administration of Correctional Facility No. 3 reported Alexey Navalny’s death in a statement on February 16. Allegedly, the opposition politician lost consciousness after a walk and could not be resuscitated, despite the efforts of prison staff and paramedics (who supposedly arrived in less than 10 minutes). According to the pro-Kremlin tabloid Baza, doctors pronounced Navalny dead at 2:17 p.m. local time.

The statement about his death appeared on the Federal Penitentiary Service’s website two hours later. “The cause of death is being established,” it said. In turn, the Russian propaganda network RT quickly floated an explanation, claiming Navalny had died of a “detached blood clot.”

“When I read that he allegedly [died] of a blood clot, I said to my boys: son of a bitch, look, they killed him!” one former IK-3 inmate said, recalling his reaction to the news of Navalny’s death.

This person spent roughly five years in IK-3 and was released in mid-2023. He said he spent two of those years in solitary confinement in an isolated section of the prison reserved for those under “strict conditions of detention” (abbreviated as “SUS,” in Russian). “The entire unit is covered in fungus, including the corridor. Mushrooms grow from the floor there,” he recalled.

The former IK-3 prisoners quoted in this article spoke to Meduza on condition of anonymity.

Isolation and exercise

There are sections of IK-3 reserved for prisoners who are under restrictions even harsher than SUS. This includes a section containing “single cell-type rooms” (EPKT), where prisoners are sent as punishment for “persistent violations” of prison regulations. Prison officials transferred Navalny to EPKT for a one-year period in September 2023. Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving 25 years in prison for opposing Russia’s war against Ukraine, was reportedly transferred to EPKT in January.

One human rights activist described EPKT as a separate “prison within a prison.” Another former IK-3 inmate, who was released in 2022, said the prison's EPKT section is so isolated that even other prisoners might not know who’s being held there.

Prisoners being held under “strict conditions of detention” or in EPKT can also be put in a punitive isolation cell (SHIZO) for up to 15 days as punishment for further violating regulations. An expert from the prisoners’ rights group Russia Behind Bars told Takie Dela that this type of punishment is “always torture” for a prisoner. Alexey Navalny was placed in a punitive isolation cell 27 times over the course of his imprisonment.

Prisoners in punitive isolation are allowed a one-hour walk daily, which, according to two former IK-3 prisoners, takes place in small exercise yards “with a net on top.” Meduza’s sources also said that the cameras overlooking the yard near the SUS section of the prison had been removed at some point. “You can rape, kill, or do anything you want to a person there,” said one former prisoner, who was beaten by other inmates in an exercise yard.

Three former IK-3 inmates told Meduza that prisoners being held in punitive isolation cells are taken out for walks early in the morning. “You’re alone in the yard unless [a snitch] is brought to join you,” explained the former prisoner who was released in 2023.

Meduza was unable to find out the details of Navalny’s daily routine or determine the exact section of the prison where he was kept in punitive isolation. However, the opposition politician previously wrote about going for walks at 6:30 in the morning.

The med unit

The former IK-3 inmates who spoke to Meduza doubted the prison’s claims that medical staff came to Navalny’s aid right away. “I don’t believe it, it’s just unrealistic,” said one who was released in 2018.

This former inmate, who spent years in IK-3, couldn’t recall a single instance in which the prison’s doctors left the medical unit to treat a convict who had fallen ill. “[The sick person] was taken to the med unit,” he explained. “As a rule, they’d give you a pill [...] There was no medical care there whatsoever.”

The other former prisoners who spoke to Meduza also emphasized the lack of proper medical care and complained about the attitude of the medical staff (one source described them as “cynical”). While one person who was released in 2022 claimed that things changed “for the better” after a turnover in staff sometime between 2018 and 2019, another prisoner who was released just last year disagreed. “[The medical staff] say that they have medicine and that they treat convicts the way they’d like to be treated, but they’re all full of shit,” he said.

One former inmate claimed that he once swallowed a metal object to protest the illegal actions of prison staff, and was subsequently denied medical treatment. “The surgeon refused all my requests for hospitalization, even though I developed inflammation. I almost ended up disabled,” he told Meduza. This person also believed the prison staff’s inaction was intentional. “They got angry at me and decided to do me harm. They deliberately denied [my requests for hospitalization] so there would be complications and, possibly, so that I’d rupture my intestines and die,” he said, adding that he underwent surgery only after his release from prison.

The former inmate also recalled cases where medical staff failed to properly treat prisoners with chest pain. “There were cases where a person went to the med unit and said ‘I feel pressure and my heart hurts,’” he recalled. “They’d give him an analgin pill and one day of bed rest. And in the morning the person wouldn’t wake up because he’d thrown a blood clot.”

In an interview with Meduza, a doctor who advised Navalny’s associates deemed a “detached blood clot” an “unlikely” cause of death. Human rights activists and lawyers who spoke to Meduza also cast doubt on the prison authorities’ claims that Navalny received medical attention so quickly.

‘Polar Wolf’

Also known as the “Polar Wolf” prison, IK-3 is located in Kharp, a village in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug located 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. Navalny’s transfer to IK-3 was first reported on December 25, 2023. Before that, he was serving his sentence in a prison in the Vladimir region — in central Russia.

The prison warden, Vadim Kalinin, has been in charge of IK-3 since March 2021. Citing Interior Ministry data leaks, the Telegram-based publication Mozhem Obyastnit reported that in 1999, Kalinin was charged with “abuse of office with serious consequences” — a criminal offense — but was granted amnesty.

Two former inmates told Meduza that in the early 2000s, Kalinin worked as the deputy head of security and operations at another penal colony in the region: Correctional Facility No. 8. “Before him, IK-8 was under ‘thieves’ rules,’ as they say. Then he came in and turned it into a ‘red’ regime,” one source said of Kalinin. “Red” is a slang term used to describe a Russian prison where the authorities exercise total control.

According to the other former IK-8 inmate, Kalinin was forced to resign in 2011 after coming under investigation for allegedly extorting money from inmates, but the criminal case against him was later “covered up.” “You could never become a prison warden without the approval of the FSB, especially in the village of Kharp,” the former inmate added.

Former inmates of IK-8 and IK-3 called Kalinin a “bloodthirsty operator” and “a total maniac,” and claimed that “for him, the law does not apply.”

But IK-3 was infamous for its harsh conditions even before Kalinin became warden. In 2013, for example, a video leaked online of an IK-3 inmate recounting multiple incidents of prisoner abuse, including prison guards beating and raping inmates with batons. After Navalny was transferred to IK-3 last December, Russia Behind Bars founder Olga Romanova told TV Rain that prisoners there are subjected to torture, like being made to stand outside in the cold and then being doused in ice water.

Earlier, in July 2023, a criminal case against four former IK-3 employees was brought before the Labytnangi City Court. Two of the defendants were accused of causing death by negligence, while the other two were charged with abuse of power and causing death by intentional infliction of grave injury. Former inmates told Meduza that the accused were allegedly involved in murdering a prisoner; a source familiar with the case also corroborated this claim.

The former IK-3 inmates who spoke to Meduza also recalled multiple violent incidents that took place at the prison. Three of them, who were imprisoned there between 2013 and 2017, recalled being beaten immediately upon arrival. “They threw me on the floor and started kicking me. I don’t know how long it lasted,” one said. “They brought me a crust of black bread in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening. They beat me, threatened me, and forced me to sign a bunch of papers; I didn’t even really read them.”

Another said that he and other new arrivals were made to strip naked, herded into the showers, and then attacked. “The [prison] staff rushed in and started [zapping] some people with tasers and beating others with batons. They beat everyone until one or two people shit themselves — I’m serious. Then they gave [us] 40 seconds to wash up.”

At the same time, Meduza’s sources said that after “intake” prison staff generally “don’t get their hands dirty” for fear of repercussions. Instead, other inmates torture newcomers, they said. As one former IK-3 inmate put it, the prison staff “dump all the dirty work on stoolies,” who receive privileges in return for beating up, torturing, and intimidating their fellow inmates.

Meduza’s sources also said that any attempt to pushback against the administration is punished severely. One former inmate said that after he tried to complain about the prison’s conditions, he was beaten until he “couldn’t move.” “My ribs were broken and I was nearly raped,” he told Meduza.

In such circumstances, everyone is “afraid to say too much,” another former prisoner said. In his opinion, prison officials are “breaking” the people being held in IK-3 — and for some the psychological strain is unbearable. “I was there when people tried to hang themselves, when they slashed their veins,” he said.

The cemetery

After RT reported that Navalny had died of a “detached blood clot,” human rights activist Anna Karetnikova wrote on Facebook that this is a “universal diagnosis that’s difficult to prove and, therefore, somewhat convenient.”

A former inmate who served time in a prison colony in Sverdlovsk agreed. “We had a guy die of an overdose — so the doctors filled out his [cause of death] as a ‘detached blood clot’ at the request of Federal Penitentiary Service employees,” he told Meduza on condition of anonymity.

According to one former IK-3 inmate, there were “several dozen” deaths during the three years he spent in the “Polar Wolf” prison. “Everyone got some kind of diagnosis, but the real cause of death remained unclear,” he said. This was corroborated by other former prisoners.

One said that IK-3 seemed to have a higher mortality rate than any other prison where he had served time. (He attributed this to the “constant psychological pressure” and the exacerbation of prisoners’ existing health problems.) According to this former inmate, he lost 45 kilograms (nearly 100 lbs) over the course of several years in IK-3 and “didn’t leave the hospital” for another year after his release.

Another former IK-3 inmate recalled a spate of deaths among HIV-positive prisoners “on New Year’s Day 2012–2013,” which he believes were due to a lack of timely medical care.

“It’s taboo” to talk about those who died in IK-3, one of the former inmates told Meduza. “But information still leaks out,” he explained. “[If] a guy disappeared or went to the med unit, and he’s been gone for a long time — obviously, he died.”

As a general rule, prison officials must notify relatives of a prisoner’s death within 24 hours. The body is then transferred to the nearest state morgue, where family members can collect it for burial. Asked about the bodies of those who died in IK-3, one former inmate said “few of them are picked up” because “it’s expensive.”

The nearest airport is located in Salekhard, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) away. What’s more, the road leading from the city to the “Polar Wolf” prison crosses the Ob River and there’s no bridge, leaving the summer ferry or a winter ice road as the only options for getting across.

If no one comes to collect an IK-3 prisoner’s body, they are buried in the local cemetery. The graves of former inmates are usually marked with wooden crosses, and their names are carelessly scrawled on the plaques.

* * *

Navalny’s associates confirmed his death on the afternoon of February 17. More than 24 hours later, they’re still fighting to get the authorities to hand over his body to his family.

Neither Navalny’s relatives nor his attorneys have been able to find out where his body is located. Investigative Committee officials, meanwhile, have given Navalny’s lawyers the run around, with some claiming to have completed an investigation that uncovered no signs of “criminal activity” and others saying that Navalny’s body won’t be released until an investigation is complete.

Earlier, an IK-3 employee reportedly told Navalny’s mother Lyudmila that her son died of “sudden death syndrome.”

“It’s obvious that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body,” Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh said in a series of tweets. “They literally lie every time, driving us around in circles and covering their tracks.”

Meduza sent questions to the Federal Penitentiary Service branch in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, as well as to the prison authorities in charge of IK-3 and IK-8. They did not respond in time for publication.

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Story by Kristina Safonova with additional reporting by Lilia Yapparova and other Meduza journalists

Abridged translation by Eilish Hart