As the winners of the best documentary Oscar accepted their golden statue on stage in Hollywood, the Russian opposition leader who was the subject of the film languished in solitary confinement, his health deteriorating, according to colleagues and family members.
Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal opponent, has been in solitary confinement in a 6-by-11-foot cell for the past five months, Russian activist and journalist Maria Pevchikh said at the Oscars on Sunday.
“I classify his prison conditions as torture,” Pevchikh said backstage, where she had joined the filmmakers behind “Navalny” after they won the Oscar for best feature documentary.
“He is unwell in terms of health,” she said. “I don’t like to deliver this sort of news but that’s the truth, due to the fact that he’s in solitary confinement… He hasn’t seen any of his family members for almost a year, which is completely illegal.”
She said Navalny’s cell has “a tiny little window, one chair, one little table.”
“And the bed has been chained up to the wall every morning at 5 a.m. and taken down at 9 p.m. so he cannot use it during the day,” she said.
Navalny’s daughter, Dasha, told reporters at the event that the only way the family is able to stay in touch with him is through letters, and defense lawyers are able to visit him occasionally, The Associated Press reported.
Dasha also added that her father’s health is deteriorating, which is worrying.
When he accepted the Oscar for best documentary, “Navalny” Director Daniel Roher said that he dedicated the award to Navalny and all other political prisoners around the world.
“Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to us all: We must not be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever it rears its head,” he said.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, added that her husband “is in prison just for telling the truth” and defending democracy.
“Alexei, I am dreaming of the day you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love,” she said.
On Monday, the AP reported that Navalny had learned about the Oscar win from his lawyer during a court hearing via video link, according to his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh. She called it “the most remarkable announcement of an (Oscar) win in history.”
“Navalny” documents the dissident’s career of fighting Russian corruption, his near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020, his five-month recuperation in Germany and his 2021 return to Moscow, where he was immediately taken into custody at the airport.
The 46-year-old Navalny was later sentenced to 2½ years in prison and last year was convicted and given another nine-year term.
Navalny, long the Kremlin’s most prominent foe, shared in August that he was butting heads with prison officials over his efforts to help improve conditions there.
In one post to his social media accounts, Navalny said he was setting up a labor union for convicts, and that the union has successfully argued for replacing backless stools with chairs in the prison’s sewing shop where he worked.
As a result, Navalny said prison officials sent him to solitary confinement for three days.
“The Kremlin wants to see its GULAG consisting of voiceless slaves,” he said. “And here I am, instead of begging for pardon, uniting some people and demanding that some laws be observed.”
If Navalny “doesn’t change (his) attitude,” his stay there would be extended, prison officials told him at the time, according to the post.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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