In one of the harshest penal “colonies” (commonly prisons) special type of Russia in Arctic jailed critic of the Kremlin was transferred, Alexei Navalnyas his partners and lawyers officially announced yesterday.

According to the announcement, Navalny is now being held in penal colony IK-3 “Polar Wolf”one of the country’s northernmost and most remote colonies “with very harsh conditions and special status in the permafrost zone”, at a distance of about 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow,

Today, the opposition Navalny made his first statementafter 20 days missing – as long as he kept the journey of his transport under the utmost secrecy.

As he assured today on social media – as far as the censorship allows – he is “fine”, although the journey to his new place of detention was “quite tiring”, he said on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

“But I’m in a good state of mind, like him Santa ClausNavalny added, referring to his “beard” that grew during his multi-day trip and his new winter clothes, adapted to polar temperatures.

“Anyway, don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m relieved to have finally arrived,” he said.

For his first day at “Poliko Lykos” writes: “I can’t yet entertain you with stories about elves because I haven’t seen any. Outside the window, I can only see the fence, which is very close…. I also went for a walk. The yard is an adjacent cell, slightly larger, with snow on the ground. And I saw convoys, not like in central Russia, but like in the movies – with machine guns, warm gloves and felt boots. And with the same beautiful fluffy sheepdogs.”

Navalny hinted that he arrived at the new prison colony on Saturday night after a journey “by such a strange course” that he himself believed he would not be with his own people again before the middle of January.

“That’s why I was surprised when the cell door opened yesterday and they told me: ‘A lawyer has come for you'”, he said, while expressing gratitude for everyone’s “support” towards him.