Putin critic Alexei Navalny says he's in solitary confinement

• The sentence came on top of a 2.5-year sentence he was already serving for violating parole after fleeing to Germany to recover from a poisoning attempt by Russia's security forces in 2020.
• In June, he was abruptly transferred to a high-security penal colony about 155 miles east of Moscow, where conditions are known to be worse than in other prisons.

The big picture: In an extended Twitter thread, Navalny explained that he had been rallying and organizing prisoners to advocate for their rights being respected and for better conditions.

• "The Kremlin wants to see its Gulag composed of silent slaves. But here I am, rallying people and demanding that some laws be obeyed, instead of begging for pardon," he wrote in one tweet.
• Navalny said he was subsequently summoned before the prison's commission and accused of "regularly unbuttoning the top button of my prison robe" and that this "characterizes me as an unrepentant, incorrigible villain."
• "That is why the decision was made to place me in the special housing unit."
• Navalny described his new holding cell as a "2.5x3 meter concrete kennel" that was "very hot" with "almost no air." Those in solitary confinement receive "no visits, no letters, no parcels," he added.

What they're saying: "I must admit, it's quite ironic. Oh, you got the prison workers to get the wooden stools replaced with chairs with backs? Well, then you'll be sitting on an iron bench yourself, haha," he added in one tweet.

• "It’s only 3 days so far, but in the middle of September I have a visit from my relatives, which I am supposed to have once every 4 months. No visits are allowed to those in the SHU, so they say that unless I 'reconsider my attitude', it will become my permanent residence," he added, referring to the solitary confinement quarters.