This month brought the stunning news from a remote Arctic penal colony, one of Russia’s harshest facilities: the still-unexplained death of Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s fiercest foe. His group counts 680 political prisoners in Russia. Political prisoners tend to be sent to those whose administrations hold tighter controls, says Zoya Svetova, a journalist and prisoner rights advocate. Reports of physical abuse are common for ordinary inmates but rare for political prisoners, advocates say. While he received some treatment in pretrial detention in Moscow, there has been none at the penal colony in Omsk.

Source: ABC News February 27, 2024 18:57 UTC