Russian dissident Alexei Navalny joked on Wednesday during his first court appearance since being transferred to an Arctic penal colony, but a judge rejected his latest appeal over his treatment in prison, Reuters reported.

Oleksiy Navalny is in prisonPhoto: Oleksandr Zemlianichenko / AP / Profimedia

Navalny appeared on video from the Polar Wolf colony, where he was transferred last month from a prison in Melekhovo, east of Moscow, on an arduous three-week journey by road and rail.

He caused laughter from the judge when he asked in the appeal procedure whether a holiday was organized in the Melekhiv colony on the occasion of his departure and whether there was karaoke.

He later asked if the Melekhiv prison department was organizing a strip party – a reference to the scantily clad celebrity party that took place in Moscow last month and caused a national scandal.

The lines showed Navalny’s ability to find humor even in his bleak situation and communicate with the outside world despite being sent to one of Russia’s most remote and inhospitable regions.

His frequent court hearings have given him a platform to continue his attacks on President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, as well as to challenge his treatment in prison. He told Judge Kirill Nikiforov, who has presided over many similar hearings, that “a tear is running down my cheek” from the pleasure of seeing him again.

Navalny, 47, is serving more than 30 years in prison on charges ranging from fraud to extremism, which he says are designed to silence him. In 2020, he survived an assassination attempt using a nerve agent.

The Kremlin says he is a convicted felon and his treatment is a prison matter. The Kremlin has portrayed Navalny and his supporters as CIA-linked extremists who are allegedly trying to destabilize Russia.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Navalny unsuccessfully argued that authorities acted illegally by sending him to solitary confinement in October for insulting a prison officer.

The penal colony where Navalny was transferred, known as “Polar Wolf”, is considered one of the harshest prisons in Russia. Most of those detained there were convicted of serious crimes.

Winters here are harsh and temperatures will drop to around minus 28 degrees Celsius over the next week.

Located about 60 km from the Arctic Circle, the prison was established in the 1960s as part of the former Soviet Gulag system of forced labor camps, according to the Moscow Komsomolets newspaper.

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“I’m your new Santa Claus”, “what does he say oh-oh-oh” / The post with which Navalny informs that he has reached the colony located beyond the Arctic Circle