Aleksei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition politician, says he has been sent to solitary confinement for the third time this month as a punishment for his political activities.
Navalny, who is being held at a facility about 260 kilometers east of Moscow, made the statement on Instagram on August 30 most likely via his team members.
"The thing is, I'm too politically active for an inmate. They are very irritated by the labor union I have created.... And what really drives the Kremlin mad is [our team's] work on pushing the list of 6,000 oligarchs, corrupt officials, and warmongers who will be slapped with [international] sanctions," Navalny wrote.
The punishment comes a day after Navalny's team published its latest list of Russian officials, journalists, and celebrities, who, according to the group, are "directly responsible" for Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine launched in late February.
SEE ALSO: Navalny's Team Publishes Names Of 200 'Warmongers' It Says Should Be Sanctioned"One must pay a price for the truth and independence, and I am paying mine. And I am doing better than many as I do not have bombs falling here. I hate this war [in Ukraine] and with my colleagues...we are trying to do our best to expedite its end," Navalny wrote on Instagram.
He is serving an 11.5-year sentence after being convicted of fraud in a case that has been condemned by his supporters and by officials outside of Russia who say it is an attempt to silence one of the Kremlin's most-vocal opponents.
Navalny said on August 24 that he was sent to solitary confinement for five days for failing to quickly follow a guard’s command to put his hands behind his back. Before that, he was ordered to an isolation cell for failing to button the top button on his prison uniform, which he said was too small for him.
Navalny recently announced a plan to establish a labor union at the prison, which he said angered the authorities.
In 2020, Navalny nearly died after falling suddenly ill while traveling in Siberia. Doctors in Germany later determined he had been exposed a Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok.
Last year, after recovering, he voluntarily returned to Russia, and he was arrested and prosecuted again.
He blames the Kremlin for the poison attack. Russian officials have denied trying to kill him.