Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, detained in a prison colony in the Russian Arctic after being held for almost three weeks with an unknown destination, stated this Tuesday that “he is fine.”
In a message posted on
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m relieved to finally be here,” he said.
Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption activist, opponent and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in 2021 and later sentenced to 19 years in prison.
On Monday, supporters of the Russian opposition leader reported on the social network
“We found Navalny. He is in penal colony number 3 in the city of Kharp,” Kira Iarmych said on X (formerly Twitter), indicating that Navalny “is fine” and that his lawyer has visited him.
Kharp, a small town with a population of around 5,000, is located in Yamalo-Nenetsia, a remote region of northern Russia, north of the Arctic Circle, and is home to several penal colonies.
Accused of extremism, according to the court ruling, Navalny must serve his sentence in a “special regime” colony, a category of establishments where detention conditions are the harshest and which are normally reserved for prisoners serving life sentences already. the most dangerous detainees.
One of the “special regime” colonies is precisely in Kharp, colony number 18, or “Polar Owl”.
The Russian penitentiary services admitted, on December 15, that Navalny had been transferred from the Vladimir prison, where he had been serving his sentence since June 2022, but did not specify his new destination.
The opposition’s lawyers, sentenced to 30 years in prison, had no contact with their client since December 5 and their collaborators launched the global campaign “Where is Navalny?”
On December 7, Navalny appealed from prison to vote against Putin in the March 17 election.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern about the lack of information about Alexei Navalny’s whereabouts and demanded the Kremlin release him as soon as possible.
In the same message, Blinken demanded the “immediate release” of the Russian opponent and that President Vladimir Putin’s government stop “suppressing independent voices in Russia.”
Source: TSF
