Kremlin critic Navalny says he has begun sewing labor

By AFP 7 December 2021, 1:59 pm

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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny announces that he is now working in the industrial sewing outfit of his penal colony after being ordered to take up prison labor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s best-known domestic critic was imprisoned in February and is serving two and a half years on old embezzlement charges in a penal colony around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Moscow.

Penal colonies, which are the most common form of incarceration in Russia, require inmates to choose from a variety of jobs.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a glass cage during a hearing in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, February 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP)

“‘Prisoner Navalny, your correction is impossible without involvement in labor activity,'” the politician quotes prison officials as telling him in a Facebook post run by his team.

“‘You have been with us for nine months — it’s time to work.'”