Imprisoned Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, whose relatives had not heard from for almost three weeks, reappeared this Monday in a penal colony in Kharp, in the Russian Arctic, an isolated region where he was transferred for three months before the presidential election.
Charismatic anti-corruption activist and number one enemy of Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny, 47, is serving a nineteen-year prison sentence for “extremism”. He was arrested in January 2021 upon his return from Russia from convalescence in Germany for a poisoning which he blames on the Kremlin.
“The conditions there are difficult”
Alexei Navalny disappeared at the beginning of December from the penal colony in the Vladimir region, 250 kilometers east of Moscow, where he had been detained until then, which meant his probable transfer to another establishment.
“We found Navalny. He is in penal colony number 3 in the town of Kharp,” said his spokesperson Kira Iarmych on X (ex-Twitter), indicating that the opponent “is doing well” and that his lawyer visited him on Monday. Kharp, a small town of around 5,000 inhabitants, is located in Yamalo-Nenetsia, a remote region in northern Russia. It lies beyond the Arctic Circle and several penal colonies are located there.
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 distributing letters or (telephone access),” he added.
“Isolate Alexei”
According to the verdict for “extremism” pronounced against Alexeï Navalny, the opponent must serve his sentence in a “special regime” colony, the category of establishments where the conditions of detention are the harshest and which are usually reserved for life sentences and the most dangerous prisoners.
A “special regime” colony is located in Kharp, colony number 18 “Polar Owl”, although Alexei Navalny is currently detained in another. “From the start, it became clear that the authorities wanted to isolate Alexei, in particular before the presidential election” scheduled for March 2024, Ivan Zhdanov further reacted.
An eradicated movement
Transfers from one penal colony to another in Russia often take several weeks of train travel with stages, with detainees’ relatives not being heard from during this time.
This lack of news concerning the opponent had aroused concern in several Western capitals and the UN. The White House said in particular that it was “very concerned” and once again demanded the release of the opponent.
Alexeï Navalny’s movement has been methodically eradicated in recent years by the authorities, pushing his collaborators and allies into exile or prison. Its Anti-Corruption Fund was declared “extremist” in 2021 and the authorities launched a wanted notice on Thursday against its director, Maria Pevtchikh, who fled abroad.
In early December, Russian authorities initiated new charges of “vandalism” against the charismatic anti-corruption activist, which could add three more years of detention to his sentence.
Faced with a crushed opposition and the repression of any critical voice in the country, Vladimir Putin is aiming for a new six-year term in the Kremlin during the presidential election next March, a mandate which will take him until 2030, the year he will be 78 years.