Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will serve two and a half years in Russian prison for violating parole. He is expected to spend time in penal colony no.2 in the provincial town of Pokrov, 100 kilometres east of Moscow. It is part of a sprawling network of some 684 work colonies that today holds some 393,000 prisoners. The system requires inmates to carry out menial labour for a meagre salary and is routinely flagged by Russian advocacy groups for imposing long working hours and overlooking harsh conditions.

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