Almost three weeks after a prominent Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny, disappeared from the Russian prison system, he has now been located in the Russian penal setup in IK-3 situated in Kharp of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. A statement verifying his location was released on Monday by his spokesperson.
This disclosure comes after Navalny’s unanticipated absence from a video hearing scheduled in the early weeks of December. Since his disappearance, his advocates and lawyers were devoid of information regarding his whereabouts, with prison authorities stating that they no longer had him in their register but refusing to disclose his new location.
Alexei Navalny has long been subjected to the Kremlin’s criticism and has been imprisoned in Russia since 2021 following a poisoning attempt while in Germany. Multiple sentences have been levied against him on a myriad of charges, predominantly related to so-called “extremist activities”. His sudden disappearance from the prison ignited serious concerns from the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia. They issued a statement urging the Russian authorities to obey international human rights obligations.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation’s Director, Ivan Zhdanov, divulged from a Monday tweet that Navalny was found in the “Polar Wolf” penal colony, one of the most remote and northernmost colonies. As described by Zhdanov, the conditions of this colony are extremely harsh, enforced with a special regime in the permafrost zone. Navigating through the Russian authorities and after 618 inquiries, Navalny’s team managed to locate him, eventually enabling his lawyer to meet him. Zhdanov alleged that Navalny’s transfer was possibly known to authorities back in April, underscoring his situation as a significant instance of how the system attempts to suppress and isolate political prisoners.
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