“More comfortable than a plane seat”. Russian official defends prison van conditions journalist calls “torturous”

Tverskoy district court in Moscow began hearing a lawsuit against Russia’s Interior Ministry brought by journalist Antonina Favorskaya, who is challenging the “torturous” conditions in which prisoners are transported from detention centres.

Favorskaya faces charges related to alleged cooperation with the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the now-banned organisation founded by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“The conditions are so torturous that I fell ill twice—once with pneumonia and once with bronchitis,” Favorskaya told the court.

She asked the court to order a technical inspection of the Kamaz prisoner transport vehicle to assess whether it properly accommodates the human body. She also requested that other female detainees be called to testify, including nurse Olga Menshikh. Citing documents from the Interior Ministry, Favorskaya said each detainee is allocated just 23 centimetres, or 9 inches, of seating space: “Imagine, Your Honour, that someone’s backside is supposed to fit into that.”

Favorskaya also pointed out that on two occasions she was transported in the same compartment as murder suspects, which, she argued, violated the Ministry’s own regulations. She requested that, until the court delivers its verdict, she be transported to court in the personal vehicle of the head of the Centre “E”, Russia’s notorious anti-extremism police unit.

Her lawyer, Yevgeniya Grigoryeva, compared the isolation unit inside the transport vehicle (a small enclosure known as stakan, or “the glass”) to the dimensions of a coffin. She asked the court to accept into evidence a drawing by Favorskaya titled Kamaz-Gazenwagen, a reference to the Nazi-era gas trucks. Favorskaya explained that the vehicle has no seatbelts or handrails, which means detainees are thrown from side to side during any movement. Along one wall of the vehicle, there is a bar that prevents them from resting their backs properly.

“They’re calling this a gazenwagen,” said Isaev, a representative of the Interior Ministry. “In the lead-up to the 80th anniversary of WWII Victory Day, I think that’s, at the very least, inappropriate.”

Isaev also disputed the claim that each seat measures just 23 centimetres, arguing that the actual width is 48, or 19 inches. To make his point, he compared this with an economy-class seat on a plane, which measures only 45 centimetres, or 18 inches: “[In the transport vehicle], it’s actually more comfortable than sitting in a plane seat.”

Isaev also opposed the idea of summoning other female detainees from Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 6 to testify. “Every individual will experience discomfort—that’s a given, determined by their procedural status. [I’ve been in the transport vehicle myself]—it’s entirely tolerable, Your Honour.”

The court will continue hearing this lawsuit on April 29.

Earlier, in a letter from pre-trial detention cited by her outlet SotaVision, Favorskaya revealed that authorities have accused her of “helping to organise Alexei Navalny’s funeral” as part of the case against her.

“The clowns who have charged me for my reporting from Kovrov, Salekhard and Moscow are, most cynically, prosecuting me (I quote) ‘for helping to organise Alexei Navalny’s funeral.’ Only those who are very afraid and know only how to take revenge could reach such surrealism,” she wrote.

Favorskaya has been in custody since March 29, 2024. According to investigators, the journalist was involved in “collecting material, producing and editing videos and publications for the FBK.” At one of her detention hearings, Favorskaya stated that she was being prosecuted “for an article about how the Federal Penitentiary Service tortured Alexei Navalny.”

Three other journalists—Artem Krieger of SotaVision as well as Konstantin Gabov and Sergei Karelin, freelancers who have worked with, respectively, Reuters and the Associated Press—have been charged in the same case of participating in an extremist community through alleged FBK connections. Their hearings are being held behind closed doors.