Murdering professor from Putin’s old university is given ‘luxury’ jail while Vladimir’s leading political foe Alexei Navalny is locked up in a ‘concrete kennel’

• Military historian Oleg Sokolov, 66, murdered his student lover in St Petersburg
• He is serving a 12 year sentence but he is being kept in excellent conditions
• Putin foe Alexei Navalny meanwhile has faced repeat bouts of solitary confinement and is being detained in horrendous conditions 

A murdering professor at Vladimir Putin’s former university lives in a ‘luxury’ jail, it has emerged, while the warmonger’s leading political foe is locked up 24/7 in a ‘concrete kennel’, highlighting the warped nature of the Russian justice system.

Military historian and internationally-acclaimed Napoleon expert Oleg Sokolov, 66, shot and beheaded his lover Anastasia Yeschenko, 24, throwing her severed body parts in the Moika River in St Petersburg.

Now in a ‘strict regime jail’ in his home city, he has a library, and has been put in charge of teaching other inmates and is allowed to continue his research.

On a 12 year sentence, he can relax by a fireplace and enjoy billiards in a ‘privileged’ prison, say reports – and his lawyer says he has ‘no complaints’ about conditions in a jail with marble tiles.

Military historian and internationally-acclaimed Napoleon expert Oleg Sokolov, 66, shot and beheaded his student lover

Anastasia Yeschenko, 24, was killed by Sokolov who threw her severed body parts in the Moika River in St Petersburg

Sokolov – who taught at St Petersburg [formerly Leningrad] State University, Putin’s alma mater, where his victim was a PhD student – is believed to have friends among the Russian elite despite his horrific crime.

A fan of French history who dressed up for Napoleonic reenactments with his murder victim, Sokolov had lectured at the Sorbonne and held France’s distinguished Legion of Honour.

After shooting dead the student and before butchering her body, he held a cognac party with friends as her corpse was stashed under a bed in the next room.

An ‘exhausted’ Sokolov suspected her of cheating on him, and became violent when she told him she intended to go to a friend’s birthday party, according to evidence in the trial.

He was caught when he was found in the icy water of the Moika River trying to dispose of his lover’s arms – chopped off at the shoulder – which were in his backpack.

His victim’s severed head was found wrapped in an IKEA plastic bag in his plush apartment, while her dismembered torso and legs were all dredged from the river.

She had enraged him by ‘insulting’ his daughters by a previous relationship, he said.

The ‘penal colony’ where Sokolov is being held comes complete with a fireplace, marble tiling, televisions and a snooker table

Sokolov’s jail is fitted with a library so the historian can continue his research

Sokolov has been visited by a human rights commissioner to check on his conditions in penal colony No. 6 in St Petersburg, where the conditions are closer to those one would expect to find in a hotel

Sokolov is pictured dressed as Napoleon. The historian attended several historic reenactments 

Yeschenko’s severed head was found wrapped in an IKEA plastic bag in Sokolov’s plush apartment

Sokolov has been visited by a human rights commissioner to check on his conditions in penal colony No. 6 in St Petersburg.

Navalny, in contrast, is incarcerated in Melekhovo, Vladimir region, one of the most notorious jails in Russia.

The anti-corruption campaigner, 46, is in jail solely because he opposes Putin, according to his supporters and Western governments.

He is serving an 11-and-a-half year sentence in prison for parole violations, fraud and contempt of court charges widely thought to be trumped up due to political motivations. 

He is currently in his ninth period in a punishment cell in six months, and has been banned from seeing his family.

This solitary cell from hell is likened to a ‘concrete kennel’.

It is in a ‘torture’ prison nowhere near his home that is notorious for sexual violence against male inmates.

Alexei Navalny, one of Putin’s leading political opponents and anti-corruption campaigners, is pictured being manhandled by Russian police

Navalny is seen in a defendant’s cage in Moscow

This dank prison cell, shared on social media by Navalny’s lawyer, show the horrendous conditions in which he has been held

Navalny’s lawyer, who often communicates on behalf of Putin’s incarcerated political opponent, said recently for her client: ‘My latest break from the punishment cell didn’t last long – exactly one day….

‘This time I got 12 days for ”using the word f*** (sorry) in a conversation with a cellmate”.’

The punishment was decreed by foul-mouthed warders, he said.

Earlier he was put in a punishment cell with an imprisoned ‘homeless tramp’ who has personal hygiene problems.

The cell is 10ft by 6 ft 6 inches with a hole-in-the-floor toilet.

He described the experience as ‘unbearable’.

Putin is said to take an active interest in humiliating the jailed anti-corruption campaigner and opposition leader who wants to oust him from the Kremlin.

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