Reporting
Navalny's supporters set up a replica of his solitary confinement cell in Paris
The replica of Alexeï Navalny's solitary confinement cell installed in Paris on March 14, 2023. © Pierre Fesnien / RFI
Text by: Pierre Fesnien Follow
5 mins
A life-size replica of an isolation cell in which Alexei Navalny is imprisoned was installed by his supporters in the center of Paris on Tuesday March 14.
His supporters want to draw attention to the fate of the Russian opponent imprisoned since 2021 after surviving poisoning in August 2020.
Advertisement
Read more
A concrete block three meters long by two meters wide stands in the middle of Michel Caldaguès Square in Paris, just behind the Louvre Palace.
It is an exact replica of the solitary confinement cell in which Russian opponent Alexei Navalny is imprisoned in a high security penal colony.
In Russian, this is called a SHIZO, it is the acronym used to designate this type of cell.
“
There are four walls and two doors, one is actually a gate and the second is a door with a small opening through which the prisoners receive their food.
There is a small window closed by a grid, the walls are made of rather cold concrete.
There is a foldable bed which is only open eight hours a day, a squat toilet and a small sink
, ”explains
Ivan Jdanov
, the director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation created in 2011 at the initiative of Navalny.
In Paris, @ioannZH symbolically opens the replica of #Navalny's isolation cell which had previously been set up in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin.
@ACF_int pic.twitter.com/mKSUV1KY1W
— Pierre Fesnien (@Fesnien) March 14, 2023
“
We started this project because we realized that when you want to explain in the West what a Russian prison is, there are very few people who really understand.
In itself, prison in Russia is already a form of torture,
explains Ivan Zhdanov.
We thought about how to show the conditions of detention of Alexei Navalny and we decided to make this replica of the SHIZO cell
”.
"
Caged like an animal
"
The SHIZO cell is the most severe punishment in the Russian prison universe.
Navalny is regularly sent there for absurd reasons such as not having properly buttoned his prison uniform or not having put his hands behind his back while walking during the walk.
Each detention cannot normally exceed 15 days, but the Russian opponent has already spent 91 days in solitary confinement during the year 2022. During these periods, he can only get hot water three times a day, the visits and parcels are prohibited, he is only entitled to paper and a pen for 35 minutes a day and has only one book at his disposal.
A photo of the interior of the replica of Alexei Navalny's solitary confinement cell installed in Paris by his supporters on March 14, 2023. Thomas Padilla / AP
On January 24, 2023, this SHIZO cell replica had been installed for the first time in Berlin in front of the Russian Embassy where it remained until February 23, the eve of the first anniversary of the war in
Ukraine
.
This time, in Paris, it will remain accessible to the public until March 29, 24 hours a day.
Passers-by who enter inside are overwhelmed by a funny feeling.
“
We feel repulsion, we immediately want to go out, that's for sure.
You feel locked up and caged like an animal, these are the living conditions of an animal,
"says indignant Martine, 74, whose best friend is Russian and who came to support the freedom of expression of the opponent.
Isolation to silence him
For his supporters, this installation is above all a way to continue to highlight the fight of Alexei Navalny while the Russian regime is doing everything possible to silence him.
"
We are trying to draw attention to our cause and the fate of Alexei and all Russian political prisoners and this cell is a symbol of how they are treated," said
Kira
Yarmysh
, the spokeswoman for 'Alexei Navalny.
“
Alexei has become a symbol of all political prisoners,”
adds Ivan Zhdanov.
The fact that Putin is in power, that there is war in Ukraine and that Navalny is in prison, everything is linked.
The day Putin is no longer in power, the day Navalny is freed,
the war in Ukraine will end
,” the Anti-Corruption Foundation direct.
The director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Ivan Jdanov and his translator in front of the replica of Alexei Navalny's solitary confinement cell in Paris on March 13, 2023. © Pierre Fesnien / RFI
Currently, Alexei Navalny is not being held in solitary confinement, but his conditions of detention are not much better.
"
The only difference with the SHIZO cell, and I'm not joking,
is that it is currently entitled to have two books instead of just one,"
says Kira Yarmysh
.
Putin is doing everything to prevent Alexei from continuing his political activities, not only by increasing his sentence, since he now risks 35 years in prison, but also by trying to silence him by isolating him as much as possible within the prison itself
.
An Oscar easier to get than a fair trial
Alexei Navalny has been in prison since January 2021 for being found guilty of violating his judicial control by traveling to Germany where he was treated for several months after poisoning him in August
2020
.
Since then, he regularly returns to the Russian courts, which
increase his sentence for more than doubtful reasons.
Awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression in October 2021, the opponent regularly continues to make his voice critical of the Russian regime heard via messages that he manages to transmit and which are published by his team on social networks.
His fight has also received a new spotlight after the film entitled
Navalny
directed by Canadian Daniel Roher was awarded the Oscar for best documentary of the year in Hollywood last Sunday in the presence of members of his family.
Information that Ivan Zhdanov did not fail to underline on Tuesday to the applause of the fifty people present and for the most part Russian-speaking, ironically: "
This Oscar was easier to obtain than a fair and equitable trial for Alexei, because such a thing does not exist in Russia
”.
WE JUST WON AN OSCAR
Dad, this is for you❤️ pic.twitter.com/PGnVHs1eTB
— Dasha (@Dasha_Navalnaya) March 13, 2023
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Continue reading on the same topics:
Russia
France
Alexei Navalny
our selection