Alexei Navalny, who is now known to be being held in a prison colony in Russia’s Arctic after spending nearly three weeks in an unknown destination, said yesterday that “he is doing well”. In a message published on the social network “Don’t worry about me. I’m doing well. I’m relieved to finally be here,” he said.
On Monday, supporters of Russia’s opposition leader said Navalny is being held in a prison colony near the Ural Mountains in the Arctic, after nearly three weeks without any contact with the outside world. We should not forget that Vladimir Putin’s critic was arrested in 2021 and subsequently sentenced to 19 years in prison.
“We have found Navalny. He is in prison colony No. 3 in the city of Kharp,” Kira Iarmych said on X, indicating that Navalny is “doing well” and that his lawyer has visited him. Kharp, a small town of about five thousand inhabitants, is located in Yamalo-Nenetsia, a remote region of northern Russia, north of the Arctic Circle, and is home to several prison colonies.
Accused of extremism, Navalny must serve his sentence in a “special regime” colony, a category of institutions where detention conditions are the harshest and normally reserved for prisoners serving life sentences and the most dangerous detainees, according to the court ruling . One of these “special regime” colonies is located right in Kharp, colony No. 18, or Polar Owl.
Russian prison services admitted on the 15th that Alexei Navalny had been transferred from Vladimir Prison, where he had been serving his sentence since June 2022, but did not indicate his new destination.
Opposing lawyers had not had contact with their client since December 5, prompting their staff to launch the global campaign “Where is Navalny?” to launch.
On Saturday, the US Secretary of State expressed concern over the lack of information on Alexei Navalny’s whereabouts and demanded the Kremlin’s release as soon as possible. In the same message, Antony Blinken demanded the “immediate release” of the Russian opponent and that President Vladimir Putin’s government stop “suppressing independent voices in Russia.”
France also criticized Navalny’s transfer to a penal colony in Russia’s Arctic on Monday, seeing it as another human rights violation. Paris also called for the release of all political prisoners, “immediately and unconditionally, and an end to all legal proceedings against them.”
Last week, Russia added Maria Pevtchikh, the director of the board of directors of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund, who lives in exile in London, to its wanted list. Pevtchikh was already considered a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities, a pejorative concept that condemns the target to police investigations and other punitive measures.
with Lusa
Source: DN
