Who do you think is in this photo? They are the plaintiffs. The Navalny family, including my parents, Yulia, Dasha, and Zakhar, filed a collective lawsuit today and are determined to take it all the way to the Constitutional Court. I am a convicted prisoner. And I keep being reminded that I am “just like everyone else.” But over the past year, I have had 0 (zero) visits. 0 (zero) long visits, 0 (zero) short visits, and 2 (two) phone calls 11 months ago. I am being held in a maximum-security penal colony, and under the general rules I am entitled to 3 long-term visits (three days) and 3 short-term visits (4 hours through glass) per year. And at least 6 phone calls. Take a maniac, for example. A serial killer. He is sent to a special-regime colony for inmates serving life sentences. For the first 10 years, he is under “strict conditions.” But even there, the maniac gets one long visit and two short visits a year. And I get 0 (zero). What’s more, there is an ironclad rule: once you arrive at the colony after sentencing, you get a visit. But that did not apply to me either. Through various tricks and “disciplinary sanctions,” prison system officials invented a special regime for me in which everything is simply forbidden. But this is not just about me. The Constitution guarantees rights to my children—they have the right to see me, and I am obligated to take part in raising them. The Constitution guarantees rights to my elderly parents; I am obliged, as best I can, to care for them. Which means being able to communicate with them. Yet they were not even allowed into the courtroom on the first “open” day of my trial. At the same time, this hypocritical system proclaims that contact with relatives and maintaining social ties are signs of rehabilitation. In theory, this is supposed to be encouraged in every possible way. In practice, it is one of the main mechanisms of prison corruption: pay, and you get a phone call. Pay more, and you get a visit. Or, as in my case, it is simply a mechanism for this kind of mockery. Why aren’t we allowing visits? Because we can, ha-ha. So the Navalny family has become a group of co-plaintiffs. I know everything there is to know about our judicial system, and I have no illusions. This is a matter of principle: I have the right to see my family at least a couple of times a year. And it is also a matter of the future: someday, even if only years from now, these cases will be reviewed by an honest court. Let the files be there, ready and waiting.