Russia’s Vladimir Putin promoted a top prison official accused of tormenting Alexei Navalny behind bars just three days after the Kremlin foe died in prison.
Valery Boyarinev, the deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, was given the special rank of colonel general by presidential decree on Feb. 19, according to a copy of the document posted on the official government portal. The Kremlin confirmed the promotion Tuesday, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisting to reporters that it was part of an “absolutely normal” process. Several other prison officials were also promoted.
But Boyarinev played a special role in Navalny’s imprisonment, having personally ordered the prison colony where he was held in the Vladimir region last year to limit the amount of food he could buy.
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Navalny’s supporters have accused Boyarinev of orchestrating much of his torment behind bars. Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of the late opposition leader, said Boyarinev’s promotion “must be understood as Putin’s blatant reward for torture.”
In a post on Telegram on Tuesday, he wrote that “Boyarinev personally supervised the torture of Alexei Navalny in prison. The restriction of Alexei’s bills for the purchase of food, like all other tortures, is Boyarinev’s personal order from the [prison service].”
Navalny himself had written about food being used against him. “It’s a simple and very effective method,” he wrote in April 2023, noting that the rations provided to prisoners were never enough or simply “inedible,” and therefore inmates had to rely on obtaining additional food.
One “amazing trick” prison officials had, he said, was making him pay for food that he was only allowed to look at while he was in an isolation unit.
“The door opens. There’s a cop with a package: ‘Navalny, take the products you bought. Boiled eggs, sign for them. We’ll throw them away; they’re expiring. Look, you also have potatoes and rice. We’ll recycle them. They’ll be spoiled tomorrow. Oh! Is this your bun? Did you buy it for a holiday? You’re living a lavish life. Sign here for receipt of the bun, and here for its destruction. It’s a perishable product!”
