Hosed down outdoors at minus 42C: reality in Navalny’s brutal Arctic jail
Russia’s opposition leader emerged from his prison transfer with a typically upbeat and humorous message, but what awaits inside the Polar Wolf camp?
Navalny’s 20-day silence led some to fear what had become of him
YULIA MOROZOVA/REUTERS
The Sunday Times
On the evening of December 23 a prison train rolled into the settlement of Kharp in Russia’s far north where the forest meets the tundra and the winter sun never rises.
From the metal cabin, after 20 days of silence, with some fearing the worst, a festive guest emerged.
“I’m your new Santa Claus,” read a message posted on Alexei Navalny’s social media account on Boxing Day. “Unfortunately, there are no reindeer but there are huge, fluffy and very beautiful shepherd dogs.”
The upbeat message relaying his whereabouts to his followers, apparently passed from the Russian opposition leader to his lawyer at the prison, masked the brutality of his 20-day transfer and his new surroundings at the FKU IK-3 “Polar Wolf” prison camp beyond the
