There was initially uncertainty about Navalny’s whereabouts. Now he has spoken up himself: He is in a penal colony about 260 kilometers from Moscow.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been taken to another prison camp.
(dpa)
Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who has just been sentenced to nine years in prison, says he has been transferred to a prison camp with tougher conditions than before. He was transferred to penal colony 6 in Melechowo near the city of Kovrov and is currently in quarantine, the 46-year-old said on Instagram on Wednesday. Relatives, employees, friends and supporters had previously worried about the whereabouts of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s fiercest opponent. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch said the day before that his life was in danger.
The lawyer for the prominent anti-corruption fighter was not given any information in the prison camp in Pokrov about where the opposition leader had been transferred. Now the lawyer also saw Navalny in the penal camp, said Jarmysch. The camp, with particularly harsh prison conditions, is about 150 kilometers away from the Pokrov penal colony, about 260 kilometers northeast of the Russian capital Moscow.
Navalny faces at least 15 more years in prison
The power apparatus is doing everything it can to make it difficult for the lawyers and the family to contact Navalny, Jarmysch said. In May, a court upheld Navalny’s nine-year prison sentence for alleged fraud. This made the transfer to a penal camp with tougher prison rules legally binding. In Russian prisons for serious criminals, inmates are less likely to meet relatives, receive parcels and letters, or go outside into the fresh air.
Jarmysch said he could be killed in the brutal penal camp system, referring to the poison attack on Navalny in August 2020. Navalny, who barely survived, blames Putin for the attack.
At the end of May, Navalny himself informed about a new indictment by the Russian judiciary. This time it’s about extremism and a possible sentence of another 15 years in prison. His anti-corruption foundation had previously been classified as extremist in Russia. He has made many enemies with his revelations about corruption and abuse of power in the Russian state apparatus. So far, every indictment against Putin’s most well-known opponent has ended in a guilty verdict.