Jailed Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison in December over his condemnation of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, has issued "an insurance statement" before his transfer to a prison to serve the sentence.
Yashin said that given the transfer typically takes a long time during which there will be no contacts with relatives and friends, he wanted to emphasize that he is physically fit and has no health problems.
"My psychological state is fine, my emotional state is stable. I have no panic attacks, depression, or apathy. I am not suicidal. I will never commit suicide in any circumstances whatsoever," Yashin wrote on Telegram on April 21, adding that he had not had any conflicts with other inmates.
The process of transferring convicts in Russia, known as "etap," involves "vagonzaks" -- trains specifically designed for prisoners. Such trains have caged compartments for prisoners, who are provided with little fresh air, no showers, and only limited access to food or a toilet.
The transfers can take days, weeks, or even months as the trains stop and convicts spend time in transit prisons. Convicts almost always face humiliation, beatings, and sometimes even death at the hands of their guards.
Yashin, 39, is an outspoken Kremlin critic and one of the few prominent opposition politicians who stayed in Russia after a wave of repression against supporters of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and those who have spoken against Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since it was launched in February 2022.
Yashin was sentenced after he was found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military.
His sentence, which came into force following the Moscow City Court's rejection of his appeal on April 19, was the harshest handed down in cases against people charged with discrediting Russia's armed forces since a new law was introduced days after the invasion commenced.
The criminal case against Yashin was launched in July. The charge against him stems from his YouTube posts about alleged crimes committed by the Russian military in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
The outspoken Kremlin opponent has been arrested many times in the past for his protest activities.
Yashin said earlier that the authorities were trying to force him to leave Russia, which he refused to do.