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Partners say Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny he is no longer in the prison where he was imprisoned since last year, and they cannot find him.
“Today, like Friday, lawyers tried to reach IK-6 and IK-7 – two colonies in the Vladimir region where Alexey (Navalny) may be,” his spokesman said. , Kira Yarmysh, said Monday on social media. “They’ve just been notified at the same time in both colonies that he’s not there. We don’t know where Alexey is.”
Navalny’s aides were preparing to move him to a harsher prison after he was sentenced to an additional 19 years on top of the 11 he was already serving, the newspaper reported. Reuters news agency.
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The absence of Navalny comes at the beginning of the campaign period for the next Russian presidential election, which is scheduled for March 17 next year. Russian President Vladimir Putin Putin confirmed that he would run for the next 6 years last Friday.
“The fact is that this is happening now (although Navalny had to move to another colony two months ago) – now the ‘elections’ have been announced and the Navalny’s team ‘Russia without Putin’ – is 0% accidental and 100% direct political manual from the Kremlin,” said Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff on social media .
“It’s no secret to Putin who his main partner is in these ‘elections.’ And he wants to make sure that Navalny’s voice is not heard. This means that everyone should be Navalny’s voice,” said Volkov.
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin or Russian prison authorities on Navalny’s whereabouts.
Putin announced his decision to run for re-election after a Kremlin awards ceremony, where veterans and others reportedly begged him to seek another seat.
“I will not hide from you – I had different thoughts over time, but now, you are right, a decision must be made,” Putin said in a video that released by the Kremlin after the incident. “I will run for president of the Russian Federation.”
About 80% of Russians approve of Putin’s performance as president, according to the independent Levada Center poll. That support may come from the heart, or reflect submission to a leader who has not made any resistance to even cold criticism that is dangerous.
Navalny, who emerged as a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin’s government before he was jailed in 2021, has been serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison about 150 miles from east of Moscow for parole violation, fraud, and contempt of the law. court after he was convicted of promoting “extremism” and his sentence was extended for 19 years in August.
Navalny and many foreign observers generally view the charges against him as political retaliation for his criticism of Putin and the Kremlin’s policies, both abroad and at home, and have been condemned by the US to various sanctions against him.
“This is an unfair decision in an unfair trial,” said the spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, in a statement after the recent sentence in August. “By conducting this latest trial in secret and limiting his lawyers’ access to witnesses, the Russian authorities have once again shown the baselessness of their case and the lack of a proper way to present it.” to those who are afraid to criticize the administration.”
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 shortly after returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin – a claim he has often denied. by Russian officials.
Not long after he was arrested, the court sentenced him to 2 and a half years in prison, because he did not comply with the terms of parole. sentenced to probation in 2014, in a fraud case. Since then, the number of the cases and charges against him have snowballedwith allies saying the Kremlin’s goal has always been to lock him up as long as possible.
With Navalny behind bars, Russian authorities have also launched a crackdown on his associates and supporters. Many have been forced to flee the country, while others have been imprisoned.