NAVALNY’S WHEREABOUTS ARE UNKNOWN

The whereabouts of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were unknown on Monday as officials at the penal colony where he is serving his sentence told one of his lawyers that he is no longer on the inmate roster, his spokesperson said.

It had been nearly a week since the spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, had contacted Navalny. Prison officials “refuse to say where they transferred him,” she said in posts on X.

A Navalny lawyer waiting at another penal colony in the region where he could have been transferred was told the facility had no such inmate, Yarmysh said.

Navalny has been serving a 19-year term on charges of extremism in a maximumsecurity prison, Penal Colony No. 6, in Melekhovo in the Vladimir region. He was due to be transferred to a “special security” penal colony, a facility with the highest security level in the Russian penitentiary system.

Russian prison transfers are notorious for taking a long time, sometimes weeks, during which there's no access to prisoners and information about their whereabouts is limited or unavailable. Navalny could be transferred to one of a number of such penal colonies across Russia.

Yarmysh earlier on Monday said that Navalny was due to appear in court that day via video link but did not, and that it has been six days since his lawyers or allies last heard from him.

Navalny has been behind bars since 2021. He has been handed three prison terms and spent months in isolation in the penal colony in the Vladimir region for alleged minor infractions.