Oppositionist Ilya Yashin, who is in Smolensk penal colony No. 3, was sent to a punishment cell. This was reported in the politician’s telegram channel.
“My court appearance last Friday, apparently, hit the mark, because the events after it developed rapidly — and already in the evening of that day I found myself in a cell in a punishment cell,” Yashin said.
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According to the oppositionist, a few hours after the trial, due to the absence of a “foreign agent” sign in Yashin’s telegram channel, a delegation from the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service came to see him in the colony. A commission was held on the personal employment of the oppositionist. He was assigned to a construction team to build a new barracks.
“I explained my position to the commission: I have a positive attitude towards work, I’m ready to work, but I won’t build prisons and barracks in a country where the number of political prisoners is growing every day — this contradicts my beliefs,” Yashin retells the conversation with the commission.
He asked to be assigned to a workshop for the production of reinforced concrete products or woodworking and to write a corresponding application. Then one of the commission members suggested that Yashin “sew bags and jackets for the army at the front.”
“In general, an act of my refusal to work was immediately drawn up. During the evening inspection, the prisoners demonstratively took me out of action and escorted me to the disciplinary commission. There I was declared a persistent offender and received my first five days in a punishment cell,” the oppositionist added.
In December 2022, Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in a general regime colony — he was found guilty of distributing “fakes” about the actions of the Russian army motivated by political hatred (clause “e” of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). The reason for the case was a live broadcast on YouTube, during which the politician spoke about the killings of civilians by the Russian military in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
During the trial and investigation, the oppositionist was in a pre-trial detention center in Moscow. On November 10, it became known that Yashin was transferred to the Smolensk region. Later, representatives of the army came to the colony where the politician was serving his sentence to recruit prisoners for the war in Ukraine. When meeting with the oppositionist, they doubted that they would find a “common language” with him, and did not encourage Yashin to go to the front.