'Missing' Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in Arctic prison colony
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, currently incarcerated, has been transferred to IK-3, a penal colony situated in the settlement of Kharp within the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, positioned above the Arctic Circle.
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FollowRussian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, incarcerated and missing for over two weeks, has reportedly been relocated to a penal colony in the Arctic, according to allies on Monday. The vanishing of the country's foremost opposition figure, known for orchestrating substantial protests before his imprisonment in 2021, raised alarms among allies, human rights organizations, and Western governments. This indicated a probable transfer between prisons, a process that typically spans weeks in Russia, where detainees are gradually transported by rail to distant facilities.
"We have found Alexei Navalny. He is now in IK-3 in the settlement of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District," his ally, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media.
"His lawyer visited him today. Alexei is doing well," Yarmysh added. The district of Kharp, home to about 5,000 people, is located above the Arctic Circle.
It is "one of the most northern and remote colonies," said Ivan Zhdanov, who manages Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation. "Conditions there are harsh, with a special regime in the permafrost zone" and very little contact to the outside world," Zhdanov added.
The United States has expressed worry about the well-being of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has not been in communication since the beginning of December.
"We are deeply concerned about the whereabouts of Alexei Navalny, who has now been missing in Russia's prison system for nearly three weeks," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on X (formerly Twitter).
“We once more call for his immediate release and an end to the continued repression of independent voices in Russia,” he stated, as UN human rights expert Mariana Katzarova joined others in expressing apprehension about the "enforced disappearance" of Alexei Navalny.
Since December 6, his legal representatives have been unable to visit or communicate with him. On December 15, according to Alexei Navalny's spokesperson Kira Yarmysh, a court official informed her that he had been transferred from a prison near Moscow. Subsequently, he was relocated to an undisclosed destination, potentially a more stringent facility, following a court decision earlier in the year.
Alexei Navalny's team suggested that the potential transfer to a different prison has been strategically timed, coinciding with the anticipated re-election of Vladimir Putin in March.
Navalny, aged 47 and a prominent political adversary to Putin, was disqualified from participating in the 2018 elections. In 2021, he was handed a 19-year prison term on "extremism" charges.
