While his relatives had not heard from him for three weeks, Vladimir Putin's main opponent, sentenced to 19 years in prison for “extremism”, is in a prison deep in the Arctic, one of his relatives said this Monday, December 25 .
And on Christmas Day, Vladimir Putin's main opponent emerged again. In the arctis. Jailed Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, whose relatives have not heard from him for almost three weeks, is in a penal colony in Charp, beyond the Arctic Circle, his spokesman said on Monday, December 25.
“We found Navalny. He is in penal colony number 3 in the town of Kharp,” said Kira Iarmych on Kharp, a small town of around 5,000 residents, is located in Yamal-Nenets, a remote region in northern Russia. There are several penal colonies there.
19 years in prison
Alexei Navalny, anti-corruption activist and Vladimir Putin's bête noire, 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. His relatives and associates had not heard from him since early December, meaning he was likely moved from the colony in the Vladimir region, 250 kilometers from Moscow, where he had been held until now.
Under the “extremism” verdict handed down to Navalny, the opponent will have to serve his sentence in a “special regime” colony, the category of facilities where prison conditions are the harshest and usually reserved for convicts. to life imprisonment and among the most dangerous prisoners. Kharp is home to a “special regime” colony, colony number 18 “Polar Owl,” although Navalny is currently being held in another.
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.
Methodical isolation before the presidential election
“It was clear from the beginning that the authorities wanted to isolate Alexei, especially before the presidential election scheduled for March 2024,” one of his close associates, Ivan Zhdanov, responded to raised concern at the United Nations. In particular, the White House expressed “very concern” and again called for the opponent’s release. After announcing the presence of Alexei Navalny in a penal colony in the Russian Arctic, Washington assured that the US was “deeply concerned” about the “conditions of detention” of the Russian opponent. “We welcome reports that Mr. Navalny has been located,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “However, we remain deeply concerned about the fate of Mr. Navalny and his unfair prison conditions,” he added in a statement.
Navalny's movement has been systematically stamped out by the 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 notice on Thursday, December 21, 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. A mandate that would extend him until 2030, the year he turns 78. To ensure another quiet re-election, the Russian government also excluded pacifist candidate Yekaterina Dountsova from the race. The commission rejected the former television journalist's candidacy for the March presidential election because of “errors” in her registration file.
Updated at 8:29 p.m. with more elements.