“We found Alexei Navalny. He is now [kolonijoje] IK-3 in the settlement of Charpo in Yamal Nenets Autonomous District. His lawyer visited him today. Alexey is doing well,” spokeswoman Kira Jarmyš announced on social media.
The disappearance of Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, who mobilized massive protests before his imprisonment in 2021, has alarmed his allies, rights groups and Western governments.
The United States on Saturday expressed concern over the fate of Navalny, who has not been heard from since early December.
The opposition’s allies say they have sent inquiries to more than 600 prisons, but information about him has not been released.
The disappearance signaled a possible transfer to another prison, which can take weeks in Russia as inmates are moved slowly by train between far-flung prisons.
Charpo district, where about 5 thousand people live. people are beyond the polar circle. This is one of the northernmost and remotest colonies, said Ivan Ždanovas, head of A.Navalno’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
“The conditions there are harsh, a special regime in the permafrost zone,” said I. Ždanovas. He added that the colony is almost cut off from the outside world.
Initially, Navalny was imprisoned in the correctional colony IK-6, located approximately 250 km east of Moscow, in the Vladimir region.
He could be transferred from the high-security colony IK-3 Polar Wolf, where he is now, to the nearby even more stringent colony 18 Polar Owl.
A. Navalnas is the most vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, who exposed the corruption of officials and organized large protests against the Kremlin. He was arrested in January 2021 when he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok. He blames the Kremlin for the poisoning, which he denies.
In August, a court in a prison near Moscow handed him a new 19-year sentence on extremism charges and ordered him to be transferred to a maximum-security prison.
“It was clear from the beginning that the authorities wanted to isolate Aleksei, especially before the elections,” said I. Ždanov.
Presidential elections will be held in Russia in March 2024, and there is almost no doubt that after them, President Vladimir Putin will serve a fifth term.
Moscow has been removing opposition figures from elections and political life for many years. The crackdown on the opposition intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
A. Navalny’s movement was particularly affected by the Kremlin’s repression. Even before the attack on Ukraine, A. Navalny’s organization was declared extremist, as a result of which the persecution of its members and supporters intensified.
The heads of several FBK regional units were imprisoned. For example, Lilia Čanysheva, A.Navalno’s ally in Bashkiria, was sentenced to eighty and a half years in prison in the summer.
Many other famous allies of A.Navalno went abroad.
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2024-07-23 04:50:06
