Russia's Navalny jokes about 'naked party' in first video link from new prison

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/File Photo

(Reuters) - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny cracked jokes on Wednesday in his first court appearance since being transferred to an Arctic penal colony, but a judge rejected his latest challenge against his treatment in prison.

Navalny appeared by video link from the "Polar Wolf" colony to which he was transferred last month from a prison in Melekhovo, east of Moscow, in an arduous three-week journey by road and rail.