Alexei Navalny seen for first time since arctic prison move

Alexei Navalny was shown on a TV screen during a court hearing on Wednesday 10 January, for the first time since he was moved to a new prison.

The Russian opposition figure had been moved to a remote penal colony in Russia’s far north dubbed “Polar Wolf” after he briefly went missing last month.

Navalny, the most prominent and persistent domestic foe of Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on an extremism conviction.

Speaking to reporters via video link, he noted conditions are “much better” in the Yamalo-Nenets region than where he was previously incarcerated, in the IK-6 penal colony of central Russia’s Vladimir region.