INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, spent his final weeks in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle.His 19-year
prison sentence was widely condemned by rights groups and in the West as punishment for daring to cross President Vladimir Putin.Through
messages passed through his lawyers, he posted regularly on social media in a characteristically optimistic and light-hearted tone.Here is
what Navalny's final weeks looked like, in his own words:'Ho-ho-ho'On Dec
26, Navalny posted his first message from his new Arctic prison colony, having disappeared for weeks after being moved from his former
prison closer to Moscow.The icy IK-3 prison colony in the Siberian region of Yamal-Nenets, some 2,000 kilometers from his native Moscow,
would be where he spent his final few weeks."I am your new grandfather Frost," Navalny said, in his usual tongue-in-cheek manner."I have a
tulup, an ushanka and I will have valenki soon," he said, referring to traditional furry Russian winter coats, hats and boots."I now live
above the Arctic Circle ..
But I don't say 'ho-ho-ho, I say 'oh-oh-oh' when I look out the window, where first there is night, then evening, then night again."Navalny
said he was tired from the 20-day journey from his previous prison in the central Vladimir region, close to Moscow."Don't worry about me,
I am so happy that I finally got here."'Thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio'A few weeks later, after a spell in quarantine, Navalny shared more
details about his conditions in the new Arctic prison."The idea that Putin was pleased (enough) that he had put me in a barracks in the Far
North that they would stop throwing me in solitary confinement was ..
naive," the 47-year-old said.Prison authorities told him: "'Convict Navalny refused to introduce himself in the correct way.' Seven days in
protocol.Allowed out for a daily walk in the pitch black at 6:30 a.m., Navalny said: "I promised myself I would go out in any weather."His
cell was "11 steps from wall to wall.""It has never been colder than minus 32 (Celsius)
9 post."Today I was walking, freezing and thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio and his trick with a dead horse in The Revenant," he said,
referring to a scene in which his character crawls into an animal carcass to keep warm."I don't think it would work here
A dead horse would freeze to death within 15 minutes."'I'm Russian'Navalny also regularly ridiculed prison routines.On Jan
22, he said the prison wardens at IK-3 would wake everybody up at 5 a.m
you my personal account number so that you, with your huge salary as a federal judge, can send me money," he said, laughing."I am running
out of cash, and thanks to your decisions, it will run out even faster
So send it!"'I love you'Navalny's last post, published on Valentine's Day, was dedicated to his wife, Yulia."Baby, you and I have
everything, just like in the song: cities, airfield lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometers between us," he said, quoting a
popular Soviet-era tune."But I feel that you are near me every second, and I love you more and more."
