DKremlin opponent Alexei Navalnyj, who has been wanted for more than two weeks, has resurfaced. He was transferred to the IK-3 penal camp in Charp in northern Russia in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch said on Monday on the X news service, formerly Twitter. “He’s OK,” Jarmysch said. There had been no trace of Navalny for 20 days. His team and lawyers had launched a search operation. The new prison camp is more than 2,000 kilometers from Moscow.
“We found Alexei!” said his colleague Ivan Zhdanov. He is in the “Polar Wolf” penal 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 chief Vladimir Putin’s opponent before the presidential election on March 17th. “His whereabouts were kept secret,” criticized Zhdanov. The remote town of Charp with around 5,000 inhabitants is located north of the Arctic Circle and is home to several penal colonies.
The US has expressed concern about the Navalnys. The US State Department announced on Monday that it is welcome that there is information about Navalnyj’s whereabouts after almost three weeks of uncertainty. “We remain deeply concerned about Mr. Navalny’s well-being and the conditions of his unjustified detention2. The US government continues to demand his “immediate release”.
“We have communicated to the Russian government that it is responsible for what happens to Mr. Navalny in its custody and that the international community is monitoring this closely,” the US State Department statement added.
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 appearances to criticize Putin’s authoritarian system. Recently he was no longer involved in the negotiations.
The whereabouts of the Russian president’s fiercest opponent had been unknown since the beginning of December. There was also great concern for the 47-year-old opposition figure because he is in poor health. During court proceedings, prison employees had only stated that Navalny was no longer in the IK-6 penal camp, around 260 kilometers east of Moscow in the Vladimir region.
According to the verdict handed down against him in the summer, Navalny must serve his sentence in a colony with harsher prison conditions. These are usually only intended for life sentences and particularly dangerous prisoners. There is one such colony in Charp, number 18, which also goes by the name “Arctic Owl”. According to his spokeswoman, Navalny is in another colony.
Transfers from one penal colony to another in Russia often take several weeks and are carried out via train journeys that are interrupted by several stops. During this time, the prisoners’ relatives will not receive any information about their whereabouts.
The Kremlin opponents around Navalnyj also started the “Russia without Putin” campaign at the beginning of December, with which they called on voters before the presidential election 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 to have no chance.
Navalnyj, 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.