Jailed Russian politician Navalny says he's in punishment cell

FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a screen via a video link from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence in Moscow, Russia May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

(Reuters) - Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny said on Monday that prison authorities had thrown him into a punishment cell for a minor rules infraction after he tried to encourage fellow inmates to form a trade union.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic inside Russia, is serving an 11-1/2 year sentence after being found guilty of parole violations and fraud and contempt of court charges. He says all the charges were fabricated as a pretext to jail him in order to thwart his political ambitions.