Navalnyj has to watch Russian state television in prison daily – SME.sk

WASHINGTON. The American newspaper The New York Times published on Wednesday an exclusive confession of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navaľného.

He wrote the answers to the questions of the daily Navalny on 54 sheets of paper. It describes what life in the IK-2 penal colony east of Moscow looks like.

“Reading, writing or doing anything else is forbidden … You have to sit in a chair and watch TV … If one of the prisoners gets stuck, the guard screams not to sleep and watch,” Navalnyj wrote.

Television as punishment

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He explained that the hours spent watching state television and selected films were part of his punishment. It is mostly “psychological violence”, with time spent in front of the TV screen playing a major role.

He attends five sessions in front of the television set every day. The first starts right after the morning warm-up, breakfast and sweeping the yard. Before lunch, another two-hour round of watching television follows.

The TV is being watched again in the afternoon. The same thing is repeated after dinner.

“We’re watching movies about World War II … or how our athletes defeated Americans or Canadians forty years ago,” Navalnyj explained. In his own words, he understands why these images must be watched by prisoners.

“I understand the essence of the ideology of Putin’s regime: The present and the future are replaced by the past – a truly heroic past, a colored past, or a completely fictional past. opposition leader.

He considers a third of his fellow prisoners to be carriers

In this context, The New York Times added that forced television in Russian prisons is not unique. This has its roots in the reform of the prison system, which began in 2010.

Its aim was to strengthen the control of prison guards throughout the day and to reduce the influence of prison gangs. According to experts contacted by the NYT, the goal is not so much brainwashing as control. Navalny agrees with this statement.

“Everything is organized in such a way that I am under maximum control 24 hours a day,” Navalny wrote, adding that his fellow prisoners had not yet attacked or threatened him. On the contrary, he thinks that up to a third of them are informers who inform supervisors about his activities.