UK Sanctions Officials Who Ran Navalny's Prison Camp

Britain has sanctioned the leaders of the "Polar Wolf" penal colony in Russia where opposition leader Alexei Navalny died.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Days after Navalny's death, the UK imposed travel bans and asset freezes on six individuals heading up the notoriously brutal FKU IK-3 prison camp. Britain is the first country to impose measures in response to the politician’s death, which has been widely blamed on the Kremlin by Western countries.

Foreign secretary David Cameron said the Russian authorities “saw Navalny as a threat and tried repeatedly to silence him”.

“FSB operatives poisoned him with Novichok in 2020, they imprisoned him for peaceful political activities, and they sent him to an Arctic penal colony. No one should doubt the oppressive nature of the Russian system,” Lord Cameron added.

The former prime minister said those being sanctioned are “the most senior prison officials” responsible for his custody in IK-3. “Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion – we will hold them accountable,” he said.

Those being sanctioned are the prison’s head, Colonel Vadim Konstantinovich Kalinin, as well as deputies Sergey Nikolaevich Korzhov, Vasily Alexandrovich Vydrin, Vladimir Ivanovich Pilipchik, Aleksandr Vladimirovich Golyakov and Aleksandr Valerievich Obraztsov.