Moscow, Dec 11 (EFE).- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been moved from the penal colony in Vladimir oblast outside Moscow, where he had been imprisoned since June 2022, his associates said Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the secondary school No 7 named after Vladimir Bulatov in Arkhangelsk, Russia, 11 December 2023. EFE/EPA/MIKHAEL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL MANDATORY CREDIT
Navalny’s current location was unknown, Kira Yarmish said.
“The lawyers tried to get to IK-6 and IK-7 – two colonies in the Vladimir region where Alexei Navalny might be. They have just been informed simultaneously in both colonies that he is not there. We still don’t know where Alexei is,” Yarmish said on X (formerly Twitter).
Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and who has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison, has been missing for nearly a week, with his team unable to reach him.
According to Ivan Zhdanov, another of Navalny’s close allies, the politician is also not in Vladimir’s high-security prison number 7, which means that “he has been transferred out of the region.”
Navalny’s advisor Leonid Volkov shared those concerns about the Putin critic’s fate: “Apparently, Alexei Navalny is not in the Vladimir region, which means that he could be anywhere,” Volkov wrote in X.
He added that the timing of Navalny’s disappearance – after parliament confirmed last week that presidential elections would be held in Russia next year – is “0% accidental and 100% directly political control from the Kremlin.”
“It is no secret to Putin who his main opponent is in these ‘elections.’ And he wants to make sure that Navalny’s voice is not heard,” Volkov said.
On Dec. 7, Navalny urged people to turn out to vote against Putin in the March 2024 elections.
Navalny also announced the launch of a website (neputin.org) calling on Russians to support any candidate other than the current head of the Kremlin.
Putin, who after pushing through a constitutional reform in 2020 can serve two more presidential terms of six years each, announced his candidacy for re-election on Dec. 8 during a ceremony to decorate Russian servicemen fighting in Ukraine.
Putin has been in power since New Year’s Eve, 1999. EFE
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