Moscow - (AFP) - Dissident and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny , who has been imprisoned for a year and a half in Russia, confirmed Monday that he had been placed in solitary confinement after promising to form a prisoner's union.

"Hello everyone from solitary confinement," he wrote in a message posted on social networks. "The trade union struggle is never easy, so how about if the trade unions are in prisons."

He indicated that he was placed in solitary confinement three days ago for violating the rules by unbuttoning the upper part of the prisoners' clothing. According to him, the prison administration threatened to make this cell his "permanent residence" if he did not change his behaviour.

He described his cell as a "concrete dog house" with a chair, a foldable bed, a sink and "a hole in the floor". Right now, it's "very hot." "At night you feel like a fish washed ashore," Navalny wrote.

"I am a model of responsible consumption," he added sarcastically. "In my cell, there is only a cup and a book. They only give me a spoon and a plate at mealtimes."

There are two cameras watching him, while visits and mail are prohibited. He is entitled to an hour's walk a day "in a similar cell, but with space to see the sky." He said he was entitled to a piece of paper and a pen for an hour and 15 minutes each day.

"I am sitting on my iron chair in front of my iron table. I am writing this letter and I will write instructions to Russian prisoners about their rights to work as long as they do not take my paper," Navalny added.

And last week, Alexei Navalny, 46, confirmed that he had set up a union in his prison located near the town of Vladimir, 200 km east of Moscow, where he works in a sewing workshop.

The anti-corruption activist and the most prominent opponent of the Kremlin was imprisoned on charges of "fraud" in a case dating back to 2014.
The dissident was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to the country from Germany, after he received treatment for a dangerous poisoning operation that he suffered in August, and he held President Putin responsible for it, in an accusation denied by the Kremlin.