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In early October, Olga Shcheglova, the wife of imprisoned writer Alexander Skobov, visited him in the “Yeletskaya Klytka” prison and revealed that reading letters is worsening his eyesight:

“When there is a complete lack of information, letters from the outside, typed in small print, are the only source. It is essential. Without it, Alexander, who in recent years has lived only in a ‘world of letters,’ will lose his last connection with what gives his life meaning. <…> But reading is destroying his only optic nerve,” she wrote.

Despite this, Shcheglova urges people to write letters to Skobov and to read his essays.

“It is a terrible choice: what to prefer—depriving life of air, or causing blindness to come faster? Yet, it is also impossible not to say that A.V. needs information. It’s a dilemma, really: both options are bad. But he tries to write his essays blindly and from memory, and his memory is exceptional,” the partner of the political prisoner said.

You can support Skobov by sending him a letter through the “Vestočka” service.

24 November Writer Alexander Skobov was sent to solitary confinement for seven days, his support group reported.

The punishment was imposed on 20 November, but the reason was not disclosed.

27 November Alexander Skobov is being threatened with a second criminal case if he does not stop speaking out against the war in Ukraine, his support group reported.

Before he was placed in the punishment cell on 20 November, he was given a warning about the inadmissibility of unlawful actions and was told that “people in Moscow” are not pleased with his texts and that, if he continued his “negative comments about the special military operation,” a new criminal case would be opened against him.

At the disciplinary committee meeting that decided on his solitary confinement, Skobov continued to speak out against the war and those participating in it from the Russian side, and asked those supporting him on the outside to “remind people not to keep silent out of fear of harming him.”

1 December Alexander Skobov was given two more terms in solitary confinement. This was reported by his support group.

The reason for the first punishment was that the prisoner took off his outer clothing while exercising. The second term was given because, at the disciplinary committee reviewing this “violation,” Skobov did not identify himself “in the proper way.”

Each term is for six days.

The previous punishment was also imposed for improper self-identification. The dissident insists on referring to himself as “political prisoner Skobov Alexander Valeryevich,” and when pressed for clarification, replies: “for the rest, get lost.”

The headline has been changed due to new information.

  • In the 1970s and 1980s, Skobov spoke out against the Soviet government. In 1978, he was arrested for the first time. After being detained, he refused exile from the USSR and was placed in a psychiatric hospital, where he remained until 1981.
  • In 1982, Skobov was arrested again and sent for compulsory treatment after he covered the walls of houses in central Leningrad with slogans supporting political prisoners. He was released from hospital only in 1987.
  • In spring 2024, Skobov was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention centre on charges of justifying terrorism and participating in a terrorist organisation; a year later, he was sentenced to 16 years. He was prosecuted for a Telegram post about the death of war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky and the Crimean Bridge explosion, as well as for participating in the “Free Russia Forum.”