Key PointsAllies of the jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny say they have been unable to find him for six days.They consider Navalny — who’s serving a 19-year jail sentence — has possible been transferred to a different facility.The US says it’s going to work with its embassy in Moscow to look into Navalny’s potential location.
Allies of the jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny stated Monday that that they had been unable to find him for six days, and that he had possible been transferred to a different facility.
Navalny is serving a 19-year jail sentence on extremism costs, and a court docket this summer season ordered to maneuver him to a harsher “particular regime” jail colony.
“We nonetheless have no idea the place Alexei is,” his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh stated on social media.
She stated his legal professionals tried to go to Navalny on the IK-6 facility within the Vladimir area of Russia the place he was being held, and tried a “particular regime” colony — IK-7 — in the identical area.
“They’ve simply been knowledgeable concurrently in each colonies that he’s not there,” Yarmysh stated.
“They refuse to say the place they’ve taken him,” she stated in one other publish.
US ‘deeply involved’ by stories of Navalny’s disappearance
The US stated it was “deeply involved” by stories that Navalny’s whereabouts had been unknown and demanded he be launched instantly.
“He is now been gone for allegedly per week and neither his representatives or his household know the place he’s,” Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby stated.
The US will “work with our embassy in Moscow to see how far more we are able to discover out,” Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby stated. Supply: AAP / Sipa USA / Ting Shen
“He needs to be launched instantly, he ought to by no means have been jailed within the first place,” Kirby instructed journalists travelling with US President Joe Biden aboard Air Drive One.
Kirby added that Washington was going to work with the US embassy in Moscow to look into Navalny’s potential location.
Ukraine offensive triggers crackdown on political opposition
His disappearance comes as President Vladimir Putin introduced he’ll run for a fifth time period in March, intent on prolonging his lengthy rule.
Since launching its final February, the Kremlin has escalated its crackdown in opposition to Navalny, who opposes Russia’s offensive, in addition to his allies and the Russian opposition extra broadly.
Moscow has detained hundreds of individuals together with high-profile political activists for criticising the battle and highlighting alleged Russian army atrocities.
Navalny’s allies consider he was taken out of the Vladimir area.
“He might be wherever,” stated Leonid Volkov, one other Navalny ally. “What’s worse, he may very well be transferred for a number of weeks.”
Russia’s in depth jail system typically takes weeks — and even months — to switch prisoners between far-flung amenities by rail.
Jail officers have previously typically despatched Navalny to a solitary punishment cell — the place he has spent not less than 266 days.
The opposition determine, who has complained of a collection of well being issues and has misplaced weight in jail, communicates with the surface world by means of his legal professionals.
Navalny’s political profession earlier than being jailed
Navalny galvanised big nationwide protests in Russia earlier than he was jailed in 2021 on fraud costs after coming back from Germany.
He had been recovering from a poisoning assault with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent, that he and impartial investigators say was carried out by Russian brokers.
In August, his preliminary sentence of 9 years was greater than doubled to 19 years, as Moscow prosecutors accused him of making an organisation that undermined public safety by finishing up “extremist actions”.
Navalny had established a community of political places of work throughout the nation and a corruption watchdog that introduced credible graft allegations in opposition to political elites.