Ivan Zhdanov, a self-exiled associate of imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, says his 68-year-old father, Yury Zhdanov, who is also imprisoned in a penal colony, is being harassed.
Zhdanov was sent to prison for three years in February last year after a court ruled that he violated restrictions imposed on him after he was handed a suspended prison sentence in December 2021 in a corruption case that critics said was politically motivated.
Ivan Zhdanov tweeted on June 29 that somebody placed a razor blade among his father’s belongings. According to the internal order regulations of the penal colony, possession of sharp items by inmates is not allowed and is punishable.
Although his father found the razor blade and threw it away, the penitentiary administration filled out a protocol on violation of regulations against him, Ivan Zhdanov said.
"[My father's] attitude to the situation is philosophical, as usual. But what scoundrels and bastards [the guards are]," Zhdanov tweeted.
SEE ALSO: Russian Supreme Court Rejects Navalny's Motion Over Prison Withholding Pen And PaperYury Zhdanov was initially handed a three-year suspended sentence on charges of fraud and forgery over an alleged recommendation he made to the city administration to provide a local woman with a subsidized apartment. It later turned out that the woman's family had previously received housing allowances.
Yury Zhdanov has rejected the charges. The apartment was later returned to municipal ownership in accordance with a court decision and no one among those who made the decision was held responsible.
Ivan Zhdanov, who is the former chief of Navalny’s Anticorruption Foundation (FBK), has accused Russia's presidential administration of trying to pressure him by arresting his father. He left the country in 2021 and currently resides abroad.
Navalny's FBK was known for publishing investigative reports about corruption among Russia's top officials, including President Vladimir Putin.
In 2021, FBK and other groups associated with Navalny were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia.