Contact with him is sporadic, because he is constantly being held under "strict detention conditions", but we’ve just received news that he has again been placed in SHIZO (a Russian punitive isolation cell). This is already the fourth time.
You can read about what SHIZO is here.
And just the other day he sent a letter saying that he had been given yet another disciplinary penalty. A prison inspector filed a report on Oleg, stating that he woke up not at 5:00, but at 5:16.
The point, as he wrote, is apparently to have a formal pretext for extending those very strict conditions. They were supposed to end in October 2016, but now it will be March 2017.
Just think how far away October 2016 is from where we are now. And imagine the terms in which a person in prison has to think: once October 2016 comes, things will get a little easier.
I don’t know what this new escalation is connected to. Maybe it’s because of Chaika, maybe because of Putin’s son-in-law — the Kremlin really does not like us touching this subject.
Or maybe the general reason is that the time is approaching when he can formally apply for parole. Which means they need to issue as many disciplinary penalties as possible.
Let me remind you that for the past several months Oleg has been held in solitary confinement, and your letters are one of the few things available to him for comfort. His birthday is on April 9, so if you write to him this week, it should arrive right on time.
You’ll have to write on paper. Address: 303900, Oryol Region, Naryshkino settlement, Zavodskaya St., 62, Penal Colony No. 5, Oleg Anatolyevich Navalny, born 1983.
The posts he writes and passes along through his lawyers can be read here.
People