Jailed Putin critic Ilya Yashin, an ally of the late Alexei Navalny, has reportedly been thrown into solitary confinement for removing his jacket at breakfast.
The Russian opposition politician was sentenced to jail for eight-and-a-half years in 2022 on charges of spreading “false information” about the army after he reported on the Russian army’s pillage of Bucha during the start of its invasion of Ukraine.
Supporters of the 40-year-old, one of the country’s most famous political prisoners, said on Telegram that he had been punished at Smolensk prison for breaking a “fabricated” rule about keeping one’s jacket on.
They said the real reason for the draconian punishment of solitary confinement for ten days was the Kremlin’s “ongoing pressure on political prisoners, their deliberate isolation not only from the outside world but also from other prisoners, an attempt to deprive them of their will, to suppress, to break them.”
They added: “Being kept in a punishment cell is a separate ordeal. At this time it is especially important for a person not to be forgotten about.”
Visits and contacts with others are banned during solitary confinement, and Russian jails are notoriously punishing.
Mr Yashin, a longtime friend and ally of the late Mr Navalny, rose to prominence during a wave of anti-Kremlin protests in 2011-12 and was elected head of a Moscow district council in 2017.
Moscow has intensified its crackdown on opposition voices since its invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
Mr Navalny, who had been the Kremlin’s most prominent critic, died while behind bars in February.
Human rights campaigners and Mr Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, have accused the Kremlin of killing the anti-corruption politician ahead of March’s sham general election.
Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, blamed Putin and his “thugs” for the dissident’s death in the days afterwards, saying that he was “outraged” but “not surprised”.
Involvement in Mr Navalny’s death was denied by the Kremlin, which claimed he became unwell while in custody and could not be revived.
