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MOSCOW – Supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday they had lost contact with him and had been unable to trace his whereabouts for nearly a week.
Navalny, who was convicted of a series of charges widely seen as political retaliation and given a total sentence of 30 years, was no longer in the IK-6 prison colony in the Vladimir region, about 140 miles east of Moscow , where he was staying His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh posted on X on Monday.
After his conviction last summer on extremism charges, Navalny was scheduled to be moved to a “special security” penal colony, a facility with the strictest restrictions in the Russian prison system, but Russian Penitentiary Service officials had not informed Navalny's lawyers or his family of his new location.
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The White House, which has repeatedly called for Navalny's release, said it was “deeply concerned” by reports of his disappearance.
“He should not have been detained in the first place, and we will work with our embassy in Moscow to see how much more we can find out,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One.
In recent days, Navalny's lawyers have visited IK-6 as well as the nearby, more restrictive colony IK-7, where he was supposed to be transferred, but to no avail, Yarmysh said.
“On Friday and throughout the day, neither IK-6 nor IK-7 responded to them,” Yarmysh wrote, adding that Navalny had been missing for six days. “It remains unclear where Alexei is.”
Navalny was supposed to appear in court via video link on Monday, but did not appear. Prison authorities told Navalny's team that there were electrical problems in the prison.
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Yarmysh wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Navalny had been in poor health recently, increasing concerns about his whereabouts.
“The fact that we cannot find Alexei is particularly alarming because last week he became ill in his cell: he became dizzy and lay down on the floor,” she wrote. “The colony staff immediately came running, lowered the bed, laid Alexey down and laid him down [him] on an IV.”
Navalny's disappearance follows Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement last week that he will run for re-election in March.
Navalny, who survived a chemical weapon poisoning attack in August 2020, is Putin's fiercest opponent and, together with his supporters, had developed a system called “smart voting” in which Russian citizens were asked to vote for candidates other than those loyal to Putin. Navalny's political involvement has largely disintegrated and most of his team now lives in exile.
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Navalny was arrested in January 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany, where he was being treated following the poisoning. For years, Navalny organized massive anti-Kremlin protests and published several investigations into government corruption, including into Putin's personal assets.
Even from prison, Navalny has spoken out forcefully against Putin's war in Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and the payment of compensation from Russia's oil and gas revenues. He also pushed to limit the powers of the Russian president in favor of a stronger parliamentary system.