Charlie Walkers brush with Putin’s Russia and how he got out.
Explorer Charlie Walker wanted to blaze a new trail through the Russian Arctic. Instead, he spent a month in a Siberian prison.
Here, he tells us the story. Yakutsk is a world away from Kyiv, over 9,000 km away. Alone in the arctic wilderness, the British explorer initially hoped that distance would be enough to keep him safe. He had no way of knowing that just being a foreigner was now dangerous.
The Russian army had rolled into eastern Ukraine just three days after Walker flew into the remote city of Yakutsk. He had planned an ambitious 1,600km ski and sledge expedition along the frozen Lena River, learning about the region’s indigenous population as he travelled.
Featured image by John Horsfall