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Navalny, the leading Russian opposition figure,
nearly died after being poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent
while campaigning against Russian President Vladimir Putin in
August 2020. The film "Navalny", about the attack and his
recovery
in Germany, won the Oscar for best feature documentary.
Upon returning to Moscow in 2021, Navalny was arrested and is
being held in solitary confinement at a penal colony where he is
serving a nine-year sentence.
"He is deprived of phone calls or meetings with his family, or
anyone, actually, except from his lawyers," said Navalny's
spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, who attended the exhibit's opening at
the Slot Loevestein Museum.
Amid a crackdown by Russian authorities on the opposition, many
of Navalny's most prominent allies left Russia rather than face
restrictions or jail at home. Yarmysh has been blacklisted and
faces possible imprisonment if she returns.
She said Navalny's prison conditions are harsh, even by the
standards of an authoritarian government.
After weeks with a fever in January, he was not allowed to see a
doctor of his choice, Yarmysh said. His cell has no ventilation
or warm water and he is held in isolation for extended periods
with virtually no way to exercise, she said.
"Right now he's in such a punishment cell ... and the reasons
why they put him there is for example, he unbuttoned the top
button of his shirt," she said.
Navalny is not allowed personal belongings beyond one book, a
mug and a toothbrush, she added.
Ed Dumrese, director of the Slot Loevestein Museum, said the
conditions for prisoners who were held in the cells of the 14th
century Dutch castle on the windswept Maas riverbank were most
likely better than Navalny's today.
Dutch thinker Hugo de Groot was sentenced to life imprisonment
there and held until he escaped in 1621 in a trunk used to bring
him books.
"It would have been cold, but he was able to read as much as he
liked and his wife, child and maid were with him in the cell,"
said Dumrese during a tour of the exhibit, which will run
through February 2024.
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
(Photo: Alexei Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh is seen in a
replica of the prison cell where the jailed Russian opposition
leader is being held, on display as part of the exhibit
"Silenced" at Loevestein Castle, the Netherlands, March 30,
2023. REUTERS/Anthony Deutsch)
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