Alexei Navalny, the prominent political prisoner in Russia, mocked the harsh cold weather conditions in his prison located in the North of the Arctic Circle, where he was transferred shortly before Christmas. Navalny's supporters reported on December 25 that he was moved to the "IK-3" penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets region, about 1900 kilometers northeast of Moscow. In a post on the Telegram app, Navalny stated that he was placed in a punishment cell due to his behavior immediately after leaving the quarantine in a prison known as "Polar Wolf."
In the post, he said with a humorous tone, "The temperature hasn't dropped below -32 degrees Celsius yet... Nothing refreshes you like walking in Yamalo at six in the morning." He added, "In this temperature, you can't walk more than half an hour unless your nose, ears, and fingers are capable of regrowing." Navalny compared his situation to a scene in the movie "The Revenant" where the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio takes shelter in a horse carcass. He remarked, "I don't think that would work here. The corpse would freeze within fifteen minutes... We need an elephant, and it shouldn't just be warm but also fried."
"Polar Wolf" prison is considered one of the strictest in Russia, housing only those convicted of serious crimes.
