"Penal colony IK-3" where, according to the Russian authorities, Alexei Navalny, a leading opponent of President Vladimir Putin, died on Friday, is the strictest prison in Russia, where only those convicted of the worst crimes are sent - writes the BBC.
Called the "Polar Wolf", that colony whose satellite image was announced by the BBC, as well as the location on the map - 1.900 kilometers northeast of Moscow, in the Yamalo-Nenets region, it is well above the Arctic Circle. The conditions are very difficult, and the average winter temperature is minus 20 degrees Celsius.
"IK-3" is notorious for collective punishment: prisoners described being punished for others' misdemeanors by being forced to stand outside without coats in winter, and those who failed to stand still were doused with cold water.
Snow covers the ground in that area for months, and around May, when the temperature rises above zero, the ground is a muddy slush.
During the summer, prisoners are forced to be naked to the waist in swarms of mosquitoes.
With summer comes long days without night, and in winter in the Arctic Circle during part of the day it is at best only twilight - there is no sun. All this brings a heavy physical toll.
Navalny's daily life has been solitary since December in IK-3, and before that in the IK-6 facility in Melehovo, east of Moscow.
As of 2022, he has spent nearly 300 days in solitary confinement, most recently being allowed one daily walk in a nearby cell where the floor was covered in snow.
All he could see outside his window was a high fence, no light.
With years of prison ahead of him, Navalny had to find ways to keep his mind and not be forgotten in the system: he filed complaints about prison conditions, asked to be allowed to appear in court when needed and speak on camera.
He tried to found a union of prisoners who would campaign for better conditions in the prison tailor shop where they work.
Navalny was often asked: "Are you afraid for your life?", and, known for his sharp wit, he answered with dark humor, but always tried to present his position to some extent, no matter how difficult the conditions were.
Through social media posts written and published by his lawyers, he spoke about the conditions in which he was held - often with more humor than one might expect.
He described New Year's in the cell, saying: "It goes like any other day: waking up at 05:00, going to bed at 21:00. So for the first time since I was six years old, I slept through the whole New Year's Eve. In general, I'm satisfied. People they pay to celebrate the New Year in an unusual way, but I do it for free".
But his daily life must have been a real test - in January 2023 he wrote that he was assigned a new cellmate with serious mental health issues.
"There are a lot of videos online of people who believe they are possessed by demons and devils," he said, and that his cellmate was "very similar" to that - he let out a "snarling, guttural scream that periodically starts and doesn't stop for hours. He shouts for 14 hours during the day and three hours at night," Navalny reported.
On another occasion, he was made to share a cell with a person who had "serious problems" with hygiene.
Navalny presented it: "If you live in a cell, and someone is within reach of you all the time, and both of you are constantly only a meter or two from the 'toilet', and the 'toilet' is a hole in the floor, maintaining hygiene is of essential importance. And a prisoner who is problematic in that sense will immediately make your life unbearable."
Navalny was sure that none of his cellmates were there by accident. He believed that it was just another way for the Russian prison system, if it wanted to, to make a prisoner's life hell.
At 47, Navalny was not old, but poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent and three weeks in a coma took their toll. His condition was then worsened by constant deprivation in prison.
In December, he said his request for a dental exam had been denied for 18 months.
He also had serious back problems and more recently difficulty walking and standing. One of his legs went numb, which probably indicated a herniated disc.
Despite his smiles and ease in court, you could see that he was getting thinner every time.
In 500, more than 2023 Russian doctors signed an open letter demanding that Navalny be examined by a civilian doctor after he said he had a constant cough and fever and shared a cell with a prisoner with tuberculosis.
Russian prisons have a long history of torture, both physical and psychological - writes the BBC. Prisoners are often abused by other prisoners who have friendly relations with the prison administration, and prison rules that are impossible to follow add to the suffering.
Russia's federal prison system itself estimates that 1.400 to 2.000 people a year have died in prisons over the past five years. The number one cause is "cardiac arrest".
Lawyers doubt it: "They can disguise anything as a 'cardiac arrest' - even suicide or murder by other prisoners or guards," says lawyer Irina Birikova.
In her experience, it is almost impossible to overcome the obstacles created by the prison system if the authorities do not want the cause of death to be independently confirmed.
Navalny's death dealt a huge blow to Russians who saw him as a symbol of resistance.
It was clear that he could no longer lead the Russian opposition, but there was at least hope that one day the political situation would change and Navalny would be able to return.
If Vladimir Putin ever needed to negotiate his own freedom or security, Navalny may have been part of the bargain - writes the BBC.
Most Russians now agree that there is now no hope of protest: people will try to mark his death in their own way, laying flowers where Navalny once stood, and some brave ones will even take to the streets and be punished.
But if the shock after the Russian invasion of Ukraine did not manage to bring the masses of people to the streets, neither will Navalny's death - the BBC believes.
And privately, within four walls, many Russians are grieving. For them, Friday, when Navalny died, will be just another very dark day and a day when they lost hope, it says at the end of the article.
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