Alexei Navalny pays the ultimate cost, silenced in Siberia's harsh 'Polar Wolf' prison

Navalny was transferred to the "Polar Wolf" by the end of the previous year. This penal colony typically hosts the most hardened criminals, along with those opposing Putin, as was the case with Navalny. The conditions are severe, influenced by both the harsh local weather and the cruel treatment by the guards. Inmates are often beaten, tortured, and systematically cut off from the outside world.

"The colony is virtually inaccessible. It's practically impossible to even deliver letters. The isolation from the world here is at its peak," stated Leonid Volkov, Navalny's associate, in his description of Navalny's place of imprisonment.

In the past, any surviving inmate from this establishment has not doubt its sheer resemblance to hell on Earth. In a conversation with "The Sun," one such survivor confirmed the constant beating as a regular aspect of life as soon as one steps into the "Polar Wolf." "They inflict hard blows to the head, neck, back, to whichever area they can target," he narrated. Prisoners also undergo torture, one technique being forced into the cold, semi-naked and doused in water.

Navalny's colleague emphasized that inmates spend the majority of their time confined to their cells, with even minor infractions inviting solitary confinement. The prisoners are almost totally cut off from the outside world, struggling to get access to an attorney, a doctor or even to send or receive letters from their family or friends.