Putin critic Navalny was held in the “closet” after the team shared the “warmonger” list

Jailed Kremlin arch critic Alexei Navalny was locked in solitary confinement a day after his team released the names of 200 “warmongers” they claim should be sanctioned.

Speaking from his cell in the high-security Melekhovo colony, Navalny claimed Vladimir Putin was keen to silence him as he was furious that the defiant list was made public.

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“I’m back at SHU [Special Housing Unit]’ Navalny wrote in an update on his Facebook profile.

“They let me out on Sunday night and locked me in again on Monday afternoon, making no secret of the fact that I can’t get out of this hole.

“The SHU is obviously one hell of a closet and absolutely awkward.”

Putin’s opponent said he was detained for three, then five, then seven days and expects to remain in isolation for another 15 days because he is considered “too politically active to be a prisoner.”

This comes a day after his team, known as the International Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF or MFBK), published a list of 200 oligarchs accused of “being directly responsible for the war of aggression against Ukraine”.

The list of 200 names is part of a broader “List of 6,000” Putin accomplices and Russian war aides.

The list was drawn up on behalf of the British Foreign Office.

“The Kremlin is really angry at our work promoting the ‘list of 6,000’ – the list of oligarchs, bribe-takers and warmongers who need sanctions,” Navalny said.

“People on the list are very concerned and are calling for action to get the ACF (and myself personally) to ‘retreat’.

He continued: “Your message is don’t think we’re too embarrassed to keep you at SHU for ridiculous reasons. You want us to ban going to Nice and London? Well, then don’t just sit in jail, but eat nothing but cinders on an iron stool in a 2 x 3 meter cell.”

Navalny added: “Right now, only 46 of Putin’s top 200 oligarchs on the Forbes list are under sanctions. Propagandists calling for murder take weekend trips to Berlin.

“This situation is perfectly convenient for Putin’s elite – the few thousand families for whose welfare this regime exists and for whose welfare Putin is waging this war.”

Immediate sanctions against the 200, then 6,000 people in dispute, the Kremlin critic said, could “destroy the status quo” and ultimately lead to a shift in their loyalty to Putin.

This comes as a number of Putin’s chiefs have been blown up, poisoned and shot by the strongman’s enemies while “the net closes around the Russian tyrant”.

The list of 200 targets include Russian military officials, oligarchs, federal ministers, lawmakers, journalists, celebrities and law enforcement officials.

The Navalny team highlighted the “propagandist” role of six people: Anton Siluanov, member of the Minister of Finance and Security Council, Vladimir Medinsky, Advisor to the President, Elvira Nabiullina, Chairwoman of the Central Bank, businessman Iskandar Makhmudov, TV journalist Yekaterina Andreyeva and those in Georgia born presenter Tina Kandelaki.

Celebrities on the target list include actor Marat Basharov, singers Nikolai Baskov, Yulia Chicherina and Filipp Kirkorov, and philosopher Aleksandr Dugin.

lawmaker Adam Delimkhanov; and businesswoman Svetlana Krivonogikh – believed to be one of Putin’s former partners – are also on the list.

In June, Navalny was transferred to Melekhovo as part of the start of the 45-year-old’s nine-year sentence in a case that opposition supporters and the West have described as politically motivated.

The Melekhovo penal colony is notorious for the rape and torture of inmates.

Navalny is described by The Washington Post as the critic Putin “fears most.”

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