After weeks of silence: Kremlin opponent Navalny reappeared

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who has been wanted for more than two weeks, has resurfaced. He was transferred to the IK-3 prison camp in Charp in northern Russia in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch said on the X news service (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

“We found Alexei!” said his colleague Ivan Zhdanov. He is in the ‘Polarwolf’ prison camp, in one of the northernmost and most remote colonies of all. “The conditions there are brutal,” Zhdanov said. There is also permanent frost there. It was very difficult to get there; no letters would be delivered to the camp. It was clear from the start that Moscow’s power apparatus wanted to isolate Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s opponent before the March 17 presidential election. “Zhdanov’s whereabouts were kept secret.

Navalny, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for alleged extremism, among other things, repeatedly files lawsuits against the prison system for violating his rights. He uses the court hearings to criticize Putin’s authoritarian system. Recently he was no longer involved in the negotiations.

Almost three years in prison

The whereabouts of the Russian president’s fiercest opponent had been unknown since early December. There was also great concern for the 47-year-old because he is in poor health. During the trial, prison officials stated only that Navalny was no longer in the IK-6 prison camp, about 160 miles east of Moscow in the Vladimir region.

The Kremlin opponents around Navalny also started the ‘Russia without Putin’ campaign in early December, calling on voters before the presidential elections to express their protest by voting for other candidates. Putin is taking part in the vote for the fifth time and possible competitors are considered hopeless.

Navalny, who also survived an assassination attempt with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020, has been in prison for almost three years. He was internationally recognized as a political prisoner.

Source: Blick