Bristled

Will St. Petersburg dissident Alexander Skobov be released from the punishment cell where he was imprisoned for having an inappropriate beard length?

On January 27, 68-year-old political prisoner Alexander Skobov is due to be released from the punishment cell in the Yelets prison, where he has been sent for the fourth time in the last three months. However, the prisoner’s relatives and friends admit that this may not happen if Alexander does not agree with the prison demands. Sentenced in March 2025 to 16 years in prison on charges of justifying terrorism and participating in a terrorist community, Skobov, even in the Yeletskaya Krytka, continues to defend his rights as a free person.

The material was first published on the Novaya Gazeta website. Baltic".

As they told Novaya Gazeta. Baltia” relatives of Skobov, he had a relatively tolerant time in Yelets prison from August to November last year. Then Alexander deliberately aggravated relations with the administration and ended up in a punishment cell three times in a row.

Skobov received previous penalties, each for six days, for taking off his outer clothing during mandatory morning exercises. And also for presenting himself at the disciplinary commission inappropriately. Skobov fundamentally introduces himself as “political prisoner Alexander Valerievich Skobov.” Meanwhile, the Internal Regulations of Correctional Institutions (IVR IU) strictly regulate this process: in prison it is required that the convicted person give his last name, first name and patronymic, date of birth, articles under which he was convicted, the beginning and end of the term and the number of his cell. Alexander still categorically refuses to do this.

The last time Skobov was placed in a punishment cell was on November 27, and he was returned to his cell in early December. Then everything was fine for about a month. And on January 13, Skobov again found himself in a punishment cell, as he himself reported in a letter to the support group. Now the reason was the too long beard of an elderly man, which the administration of the colony in Yelets considered a “violation of the rules of personal hygiene.” For his beard, Skobov was sentenced to 14 days in a punishment cell. He must remain in isolation until January 27.

“Frankly speaking, Sasha went to the punishment cell for a stupid reason,” comments the political prisoner’s wife Olga Shcheglova. — Indeed, there is a requirement of the Internal Regulations (IVR) that a prisoner can have a 9 mm beard and 2 cm of hair on his head - a maximum. It seems like a funny violation, but everywhere you can read about it, it is written that this violation is punishable harshly. But Sasha either really didn’t know about this rule, or he lost sight of the length of his beard, besides, it was the January holidays, maybe he didn’t have a clipper and the opportunity to get one, but he really grew more than 9 mm. As our lawyer joked, it’s good that Alexander was not declared a radical Islamist.

At the moment, Skobov has his hair cut and shaved, as required by prison rules. Growing a beard at any cost was not the goal of the political prisoner. But whether he will leave the punishment cell on January 27 is still an open question.

“Now Sasha is in a state of bristling refusal of everything,” says Olga Shcheglova. “He can extend his stay in the punishment cell because he flatly refuses to change the form of presentation to his superiors. As “political prisoner Skobov” says, he will continue to do so. Last time, Sasha was simply kicked out of the punishment cell without any explanation from the authorities. This allowed him to get back into the cell. I don't know what will happen this time.

Typically, placement in a punishment cell is a penalty that is used for violating the rules of detention. In a pre-trial detention center, a prisoner is deprived of almost all of his belongings, except for the most necessary hygiene items, and is deprived of the opportunity to receive parcels, make purchases in the prison store and other opportunities available to those in prison. Often in punishment cells there are restrictions on writing letters and reading books. Often, FSIN employees use formal reasons for placing a person in a punishment cell - for example, if the prisoner got up a few minutes late, sat down on a bed during the day, or violated the uniform by taking off his outer jacket.

However, Skobov’s relatives admit that Alexander, most likely, ended up in the punishment cell all four times not on formal grounds, but because he understood the consequences of violating the rules.

“He seems to be coping with the punishment cell well, he still has enough health for this,” continues Olga Shcheglova

. “The only bad thing is that he ran out of eye drops, and he immediately began to complain that his vision was even worse. But all this is not a reason for Sasha to abandon his beliefs.

As Novaya Gazeta reported . Baltia”, even at the time of his arrest, in April 2024, Skobov had a bunch of difficult diagnoses: severe diabetes, hepatitis C, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, almost complete loss of vision. During his stay in the pre-trial detention center and in the Yelets prison, all of the elderly man’s chronic diseases worsened and his vision deteriorated even more. Now he can hardly read. He asks everyone who writes letters to him to do so in very large print. The sentence handed down to Skobov in March 2025 - 16 years of maximum security - effectively means life imprisonment for the elderly dissident.

Author: Dmitry Tsyganov