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Felix Eliseev, who was sentenced to 14 years, wrote in correspondence that since 6 October he has been placed in solitary confinement (SHIZO) in a penal colony in Penza, a large city in western Russia, and that over the past 16 months he has spent more than 216 days in isolation, plus “brought 61 [days] from his native SHIZO in Lipetsk.”
“Almost my entire sentence, I have lived in the cell system, I’m used to it—it would be foolish to expect a different attitude from them towards me,” the political prisoner said, suggesting that the pressure on him is due to the very articles under which he was convicted: state treason and “justification of terrorism.”
Felix Eliseev is an anti-fascist and author of the Telegram channel “Kolhoznoe Bezumie,” and the “Nechaevshchina” and “Ona Razvalilas” communities on VKontakte. By education, he is a history teacher but had worked as a security guard.
He was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) in December 2022 because of an anti-war post on “Kolhoznoe Bezumie.” Later, he was also charged under the same article for “justifying terrorism” because of another post on the same channel:
“And well done to the Ukrainians, they hit the oil depot in Belgorod. It’s a pity it wasn’t Moscow. Hitting the aggressor on their own territory is good—it immediately brings to mind the bombing of Berlin by Soviet aviation in August 1941.”
In September 2023, it became known that Eliseev was also charged with state treason. At that time, the TV channel Rossiya-1 programme “Vesti-Lipetsk” broadcast a report about the “detention of a sponsor of militants,” claiming that Eliseev had transferred money in cryptocurrency to a Ukrainian citizen for the purchase of uniforms and equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Felix has reported being denied medical assistance and the existence of torturous conditions in the Lipetsk SIZO, where he was also repeatedly placed in the punishment cell for “violating internal regulations.” The pressure continued after he was transferred to Penal Colony No. 4 in Penza Oblast.
“There is a diverse range of people living in Russian prisons. What helps me hold on is my own sense of being in the right, the courage of some people in resisting the aggressor and abuser, and the wonderful state of the Russian economy. What I miss is the internet (being cut off from information sources) and women’s company, in every sense of the word,” he shared in correspondence with one of our readers.