Kremlin critic Navalny says locked up in 'concentration camp'

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who is serving a two-and-half-year jail term in a penal colony outside Moscow, said on March 15 he was locked up in a "real concentration camp".

His comments were the first confirmation of widespread reports that the Russian opposition politician would be spending his sentence at one of the most notorious facilities in Russia's extensive network of over 600 work colonies.

"I have to admit that the Russian prison system was able to surprise me," Navalny posted on Instagram along with an old photo of himself with a close-cropped haircut.

"I had no idea that it was possible to arrange a real concentration camp 100 km from Moscow."

Navalny added that he was in Penal Colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov in the Vladimir region northeast of Moscow with a "freshly shaven head".

Also on March 15, Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova confirmed that he was at the colony, saying that she had been able to visit him there, Russian news agencies reported.

In his post, Navalny wrote that "video cameras are everywhere, everyone is watched and at the slightest violation they make a report.

"I think someone upstairs read Orwell's 1984 and said: 'Yeah, cool. Let's do this. Education through dehumanization'," he added.

Navalny said that he had not yet seen any hints of violence at the colony, but because of the "tense posture of the convicts", he can "easily believe" previous reports of brutality.

Earlier this month, activist Konstantin Kotov, who spent nearly two years at the colony for violating protest rules, described to AFP an environment in which inmates are not treated "like people".

In February, Europe's rights court told Moscow to release the opposition politician out of concern...