By Russia Desk
More than a hundred world celebrities – actors, writers, journalists and public figures – have signed an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for the release of Alexei Navalny. The letter is published The Economist And The world.
The appeal says that at IK-6, where Navalny is being held and which is considered “one of the strictest settlements” in Russia, the opponent is constantly placed in a single concrete cell with no ventilation “from the size of a kennel”.
“It is forbidden to meet relatives and phone calls, in personal conversations with lawyers refused. Despite the high temperature, he has to stand all day,” the letter reads.
The appeal’s authors said “no independent judiciary” would confirm the charges against the politician and demanded that Navalny be released immediately. “It’s in your power,” the letter writers turned to Putin.
The signatories also joined in the demand from doctors, lawyers and deputies to provide Navalny with the necessary medical care.
Among the signatories of the letter are actors and actresses Benedict Cumberbatch, Jude Law, David Duchovny, Bill Nighy, Vanessa Redgrave, Jean Reno, Kristin Scott Thomas, Dominik West, Svetlana Aleksievich, Herta Muller, Mario Vargas Llosa, John Maxwell Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk, Olga Tokarczuk, Neil Gaiman, Mark Levy, Ian McEwan, Amélie Nothombe, JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Franzen, Ann Applebaum, Margaret Atwood, JJ Abrams, Thom Yorke and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Alexei Navalny has been in prison since February 2021 in the Yves Rocher case. In March 2022, a court sentenced him to nine years in prison for donation fraud and contempt of court. In October, the politician announced that a criminal case had been opened against him for propaganda of terrorism, calls for extremist activities and their financing, as well as the rehabilitation of Nazism.
On April 26, 2023, Navalny announced that the terrorism case had been separated from the extremism case, in which he faces a life sentence. On the same day, the politician said he had been sent to a punishment cell (SHIZO) for the 14th time, immediately after serving there for 15 days. According to the opponent, the colony has thus violated the rules according to which the prisoner must spend at least one day outside the ShIZO before the new term.
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