Navalny says suing prison for not giving him winter boots

MOSCOW: Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Monday that he is suing his maximum security prison for not giving him winter boots, as temperatures in Russia drop below freezing.

“I am suing my colony and demanding to be issued winter boots,” Navalny said on Twitter. The 46-year-old is serving a nine-year sentence outside Vladimir, a town around 230 kilometres (143 miles) east of Moscow, where temperatures on Monday dipped to -6 degrees Celsius (21.2 Fahrenheit). Navalny said the prison had already switched to winter clothes for “weeks”, but guards had refused to give him boots.

“My evil prison guards are brazenly not giving me my winter boots,” he said. Navalny said a lack of winter clothing meant choosing between not going outside at all or getting sick, which is “strongly discouraged” in prison.

The anti-corruption campaigner, who survived an attack with Novichok in 2021, added that he had previously fallen ill there. “My exercise yard is an ice-covered concrete well smaller than my cell. See if you can walk in it in fall boots,” he said.