MOSCOW | Jailed Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, whose relatives had not been heard from for almost three weeks, resurfaced on Monday at a penal colony in Kharp in the Russian Arctic, an isolated region where he was moved three months before the presidential election.
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Charismatic anti-corruption activist and Vladimir Putin's biggest enemy, Alexei Navalny, 47, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism.” He was arrested in January 2021 after returning from Russia from a convalescent stay in Germany for a poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.
Mr Navalny disappeared in early December from the penal colony in the Vladimir region, 250 kilometers east of Moscow, where he had been imprisoned until then, meaning his likely transfer to another facility.
“We found Navalny. He is in penal colony number 3 in the city of Kharp,” said his spokeswoman Kira Iarmych on
Kharp, a small town of around 5,000 residents, is located in Yamal-Nenets, a remote region in northern Russia. It lies beyond the Arctic Circle and is home to several penal colonies.
According to one of his close associates, Ivan Zhdanov, it is “one of the northernmost and most remote settlements” in Russia. “The conditions there are difficult,” he explained on X. “It is very difficult to get there and there is no system for distribution of letters or (telephone access),” he added.
“Isolate Alexei”
According to the “extremism” verdict handed down to Mr. Navalny, the opponent must serve his sentence in a “special regime” colony, the category of facilities where prison conditions are the harshest, typically life sentences and the most dangerous are prisoners.
Kharp is home to a “special regime” colony, colony number 18 “Polar Owl,” although Mr. Navalny is currently held in another.
“It was clear from the beginning that the authorities wanted to isolate Alexei, especially before the presidential election scheduled for March 2024,” Ivan Zhdanov reacted again.
Transfers from one penal colony to another in Russia often require several weeks of train travel in stages, during which time the prisoners' relatives are not heard from.
This lack of news about the enemy had raised concerns in several Western capitals and at the United Nations.
The White House was “very concerned” and again called for the opponent’s release.
Mr. Navalny's movement has been systematically eradicated by authorities in recent years, driving his collaborators and allies into exile or prison.
Its anti-corruption fund was declared “extremist” in 2021 and authorities launched a wanted report on Thursday against its director Maria Pevtchikh, who fled abroad.
In early December, Russian authorities filed new charges of “vandalism” against the charismatic anti-corruption activist that could add three more years to his prison sentence.
With the opposition crushed and every critical voice suppressed in the country, Vladimir Putin is seeking a new six-year term in the Kremlin in next March's presidential election, which will last until 2030, the year in which he will be 78 years old .
Navalny and his fight against Putin in 10 dates
Archive photo, AFP
Here are 10 dates of the fight launched by Vladimir Putin's Russian opponent, Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned in 2020, sentenced to 19 years in prison in August and sent to a penal colony in the Arctic.
2007: Shareholders of public companies
A graduate of business law, Mr. Navalny bought shares in parastatals starting in 2007 to access their accounts and demand their transparency.
In the same year he was expelled from the liberal opposition party Jabloko because of his ultranationalist positions.
He has been tracking administrative corruption on his Rospil website since 2010.
2011: At the forefront of anti-Putin demonstrations
In the winter of 2011, he took over the leadership of the protest movement against the ruling party's victory in the parliamentary elections. The rallies are on a scale not seen since Putin came to power in 2000.
He received his first prison sentences and founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
July 2013: Trial for fraud
On July 18, 2013, he was sentenced to five years in a camp for embezzling funds from Kirovles, a logging company in the Kirov (West) region.
He was convicted of a political trial and obtained a suspended sentence on appeal.
September 2013: Candidate in Moscow
With 27.2% of the vote in the Moscow mayoral election in September 2013, he became the face of the opposition to the outgoing mayor, who was close to Putin.
Two years later his party, the Progress Party, was banned.
2017: Medvedev's ducks
In an investigation on YouTube, he accuses Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of being the head of a real estate empire financed by oligarchs.
Thousands of protesters waved rubber ducks in reference to a miniature house ducks would have in one of Medvedev's residences.
2018: excluded from the presidential election
He ran for president in 2018, but the electoral commission declared him ineligible due to his conviction in the Kirovles affair.
August 2020: Poisoning
On August 20, 2020, he was near death. He was hospitalized in Siberia in serious condition and, at the request of his relatives, transferred to Berlin in a coma.
On September 2, Berlin concluded that there was poisoning by a substance of the “Novichok” type, a neurotoxic product developed during the Soviet era for military use.