Vladimir Putin promotes ‘sadist’ deputy chief of Russia’s prison system three days after Alexei Navalny’s death
Vladimir Putin promoted the deputy head of the country’s prison service — described as a “sadist” who allegedly tormented Alexei Navalny — just three days after the opposition leader’s unexplained death in a Russian penal colony.
Valery Boyarinev, deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), was awarded the special rank of colonel general by Putin’s decree on Monday, according to the Kremlin’s website.
A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed the promotion, stressing that Boyarinev was given the higher rank, along with several other prison officials, as part of an “absolutely normal” process.
But Putin’s detractors have suggested that the timing of the promotion was telling.
“It is a personal reward for torture and murder,” Ivan Zhdanov, the head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on X.
Navalny’s ally claimed that Boyarinev personally supervised the opposition leader’s “torture” during his time at a penal colony in the Vladimir region by restricting the amount of money the inmate could spend on supplemental food and other necessities. Navalny was transferred from that penal colony in December.
A copy of Boyarinev’s order, dated March 27, 2023, was shared on Zhdanov’s Telegram account.
“It must be understood as Putin’s blatant reward for torture,” Navalny’s ally wrote in an accompanying post, referring to the prison official’s promotion. “Boyarinev personally oversaw Alexei Navalny’s torture in prison. Limiting Alexei’s spending on food, like all other acts of torture — was personally ordered by Boyarienv…”
Navalny had written with his trademark wry humor about the sadistic food deprivation that he said had been regularly used against him by prison officials.
In an April 2023 Telegram post, he described how he would be forced to purchase extra food to supplement the meager and “inedible” prison meals a month in advance.
But then Navalny said he would be prohibited from eating the extra when he was thrown in a punishment cell, which happened 27 times during his three years of incarceration.
“It looks like this. The door opens. There’s a cop with a package: ‘Navalny, take the groceries you bought. Boiled eggs, sign for them. We’ll throw them out, 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 large. Sign here for receipt of the bun, and here for its destruction. It’s a perishable product!'” Navalny wrote.
“I take my hat off before the person who had come up with this,” he sarcastically remarked. “You had not only spent all your money and gotten nothing, but you also had to look at the food that you didn’t get.”
Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of the prison reform organization Gulagu.net, described Boyarinev as an “experienced sadist” and an “obedient executioner” who coordinated the torment not only of Navalny but also of thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
“Boyarinev fulfilled Putin’s wish — the physical elimination of his top political opponent,” Osechkin added.
He also predicted that in the near future, Boyarienv would replace the current director of the prison service, Arkadiy Gostev.
