Penitentiary stops giving Alexey Navalny letters from his wife

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of imprisoned politician Alexey Navalny, posted a letter from her husband on Instagram.

In the letter, Navalny writes, “Again no letters from you. What’s going on? We met strangely and we’ll part strangely. Your husband (for now).” He also jokingly asks for “the address of newspapers where an inmate can find a pen pal wife.”

Yulia Navalnaya said of the situation:

How vile that they’re not giving Alexey my letters. At least I can still have his lawyers tell him that they’re just not giving him my letters, for a laugh. Imagine how they taunt other prisoners who don’t have lawyers at all. Say Fomin, the warden, doesn’t like you, and he just drops a hint to not deliver your letters. It would just seem like no one’s writing you, how could you check? A person would sit in prison and think everyone has forgotten about him.

What a great criminal reeducation system. The first order of business is reeducating the reeducators, who are nothing more than ordinary torturers.”

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• Alexey Navalny is serving a prison term in a high-security prison in the village of Melekhovo, in the Vladimir region. According to media reports, prisoners at this facility are frequently tortured.
• Navalny has been sent to a punishment cell seven times since August. On November 17, the politician said he had been transferred to a “cell-type room,” a type of solitary confinement. Because of the transfer he was deprived of a long visit with relatives.