MOSCOW | Imprisoned Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, whose relatives had not heard from for almost three weeks, reappeared on Monday in a penal colony in Kharp, in the Russian Arctic, an isolated region where he was transferred three months before the presidential election.
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Charismatic anti-corruption activist and number one enemy of Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny, 47, is serving a 19-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.
Mr. Navalny disappeared in early 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.
Washington “deeply concerned”
The United States said on Monday that it was “deeply concerned” about the “conditions of detention” of Alexeï Navalny.
“We welcome reports that Mr. Navalny has been located,” a State Department spokesperson said. “However, we remain deeply concerned about the fate of Mr. Navalny and his unjust conditions of detention,” he said in a statement.
“Isolate Alexei”
According to the verdict for “extremism” pronounced against Mr. 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 lifers and the most dangerous prisoners.
A “special regime” colony is located in Kharp, colony number 18 “Polar Owl”, although Mr. 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 reacted again.
Transfers from one penal colony to another in Russia often take several weeks of traveling by train with stages, with detainees’ relatives not being heard from during this period.
This lack of news concerning the opponent had aroused concern in several Western capitals and the UN.
The White House said it was “very concerned” and once again demanded the release of the opponent.
Mr. 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.
Navalny and his fight against Putin, in 10 dates
Archive photo, AFP
Here are 10 dates of the fight initiated by the Russian opponent of Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny, poisoned in 2020, sentenced in August to 19 years in prison and transferred to a penal colony in the Arctic.
2007: shareholder in public companies
A graduate in business law, Mr. Navalny bought shares in semi-public companies from 2007 to access their accounts and demand their transparency.
The same year, he was excluded from the liberal opposition party Yabloko for his ultra-nationalist positions.
On his Rospil website, he has been tracking corruption in the administration since 2010.
2011: at the head of anti-Putin demonstrations
In the winter of 2011, he took the lead in the movement to protest the legislative elections won by the ruling party. The rallies are on a scale not seen since Putin came to power in 2000.
He received his first prison sentences and created the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
July 2013: trial for fraud
He was sentenced to five years in camp on July 18, 2013 for embezzlement of money to the detriment of Kirovles, a logging operation in the Kirov region (west).
Denouncing a political trial, he obtained a suspended sentence on appeal.
September 2013: candidate in Moscow
He became the face of the opposition with 27.2% of the votes in the election for Moscow mayor in September 2013 against the outgoing mayor close to Putin.
Two years later, his party, the Progress Party, was banned.
2017: Medvedev’s ducks
In an investigation on YouTube, he accuses Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of being the head of a real estate empire financed by oligarchs.
Thousands of demonstrators brandished rubber ducks, in reference to a miniature house that ducks would have in one of Medvedev’s residences.
2018: banned from presidential election
He ran for president in 2018, but the electoral commission declared him ineligible due to his conviction in the Kirovles affair.
August 2020: poisoning
On August 20, 2020, he came close to death. Hospitalized in serious condition in Siberia, he was transferred in a coma to Berlin at the request of his relatives.
On September 2, Berlin concluded that there had been poisoning by a “Novichok-type” substance, a neurotoxic product developed for military purposes during the Soviet era.