Imprisoned staunch Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny faces a new challenge as Russian prison authorities force him to listen to a pro-Putin pop singer at 5am every day.

Navalny has repeatedly accused the Kremlin of attempts to exterminate him, including attempted poisoning and assault, as well as denial of proper medical care.

Navalny, 47, a former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago by criticizing President Vladimir Putin’s elite for massive corruption, is now being held in a prison about 60 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.

He has been sentenced to 74 years in prison on charges he says were fabricated to keep him out of politics. Navalny said on Monday that his morning now consisted of listening to the Russian national anthem to follow “I am Russian”, a patriotic song performed by “Shaman”, a pro-Putin singer.

Shaman, whose real name is Yaroslav Dronov, has led a wave of militant patriotism while publicly supporting a re-election bid by Putin for the presidency.

His signature song, which he sometimes performs dressed in a black leather suit with armbands in the colors of the Russian flag – “For Ruski”, talks about how Russians can’t “break” and “go all the way” and carry the blood of their fathers.

The 32-year-old singer caused controversy in November when he appeared on stage at a concert and pretended to detonate a nuclear bomb.

In a message to X Navalny described a surreal morning routine.

“The singer Shaman became famous when I was already in prison and I could neither see him nor hear his music. But I knew he had become Putin’s lead singer. And that his main song was “For Rusky”, Navalny wrote.

“Of course I was curious to hear it, but where to hear it in prison. And then they brought me to Yamal, and here, every day at 5 o’clock in the morning, we hear the command: “Get up!” which is followed by the national anthem of Russia and immediately after that the country’s second most important song is played – “For Rusky” by Shaman.