Navalny in isolation cell after writing materials removed: allies

MOSCOW: Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was back in solitary confinement Tuesday, a day after allies said he was stripped of writing materials — his only means of communication with the outside world.

Navalny had his sentence increased to 19 years this summer and will soon be moved to a “special regime” colony, the harshest type of prison in Russia.

Three of his lawyers were arrested this month, with his team warning that Russian authorities want to further restrict his contact outside the prison walls.

“They put Alexei in an isolation cell for the 21st time,” Navalny’s exiled spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media.

She added that Navalny “will have spent 236 days” in such a cell in total.

The 47-year-old, whose appearance has changed significantly in prison, has been in and out of isolation cells for months.

A day earlier, his allies sounded the alarm, saying they “did not know” why he missed a court hearing, which was taking place inside the maximum security prison where he is held.

They later said he did not go in protest of being deprived of his ability to write letters.

“Alexei Navalny was deprived of his writing tools. Now has no ability to write letters. Therefore, he declined to come out from his cell for the trial,” Yarmysh said on social media on Monday.

“After that, several individuals forcibly entered his cell and physically escorted him to the investigator’s office,” she added.

Writing letters and visits from lawyers are Navalny’s only way to communicate with the world.

But Moscow arrested three of his lawyers this month, forcing another lawyer to flee the country.

“Nobody is allowed to see me. I am completely isolated from information,” Navalny said during a court hearing in prison last week.

He called the arrests of his lawyers “illegal.”

Navalny’s imminent move to the harsher prison will even further limit his contact with lawyers.

The opposition leader denounces the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive from behind bars.