Putin’s top critic Alexei Navalny is still missing after he mysteriously disappeared from his prison cell 17 days ago sparking fears over the Russian opposition leader’s fate.
Kira Yarmysh, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political rival, revealed just over two weeks ago that he was no longer in the prison colony he had initially been confined to.
The opposition leader’s team has contacted nearly 200 pre-trial detention centres in the country hoping to track him down. But these efforts have not yet proved successful.
Yarmysh wrote on X today: “On Friday and throughout today, neither IK-6 nor IK-7 responded to them [the lawyers].
“Obviously, the command has now been given. Where Alexey is is still unknown.”
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Navalny’s name also alarmingly disappeared from prison records six days after his disappearance.
Mariana Katzarova, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Russian Federation, said in a statement this week: “I am greatly concerned that the Russian authorities will not disclose Mr Navalny’s whereabouts and wellbeing for such a prolonged period of time which amounts to enforced disappearance.”
Speculation that he has been secretly moved to a different prison or is worryingly unwell has started to mount.
But Oleg Kozlovsky, Russia specialist at Amnesty International, told France 24 that Navalny is likely still alive.
She said: “It is very common for prisoners to disappear for several weeks while being transferred [between prisons].
“The most likely hypothesis is that he has been transferred to a special colony somewhere far from where he was held until now.”
He had been scheduled to appear in a Russian court 100 miles east of Moscow on Monday. Seven cases were set to brought against the opposition leader.
Navalny is currently serving a nearly 30-year sentence after he was found guilty of multiple crimes including fraud, slander and extremism.
His disappearance came strikingly close to Putin’s December 8 announcement that he intends to run in Russia’s presidential election on March 17, 2024. The current leader, who has been in power for more than two decades, is largely expected to win.
His previous election wins have been mired with claims of election fraud. Putin has also been accused of taking out his political opponents – including by poisoning them.
Navalny himself fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow in August 2020 and was later flown to Germany to receive treatment. Doctors there established he had been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, claimed at the time the Kremlin wasn’t keeping tabs on his health and that it only concerned the prison service.
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central, said: “Russian prison authorities are using the cruel methods they have been refining for years to try and break the spirit of Aleksei Navalny by making his existence in the penal colony unbearable, humiliating and dehumanising.”
