Aleksej Navalnyj is in a penal colony in Siberia, Russia. This became known on Monday. He had been “missing” for over two weeks. Photo: Pavel Golovkin, AP / NTB
On Monday, it was announced that Aleksej Navalnyj has been found in a prison camp in Siberia.
Aleksej Navalnyj is considered to be Putin’s archenemy. In August, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for extremist actions.
Earlier in December, he suddenly disappeared from penal colony IK-6 in the Vladimir region, where he was serving this sentence. His supporters have not had contact with him for more than two weeks.
Aleksej Navalnyj
Russian opposition figure and blogger with millions of followers on Twitter and Youtube. Educated lawyer. Married and father of two.
In 2007, he started an anti-corruption campaign by buying shares in state-controlled companies to ask critical questions at shareholder meetings.
Has organized numerous demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin.
Received 27% of the votes in the Moscow mayoral election in September 2013.
On August 20, 2020, he fell seriously ill on a passenger plane from Siberia to Moscow. Two days later, he was evacuated to Berlin after strong Western pressure.
Tests showed that he had been poisoned with the nerve agent novichok.
On January 17, 2021, Navalnyj was arrested upon his return to Russia.
In the spring, he conducted a hunger strike for over three weeks demanding better medical care. The hunger strike was called off at the request of doctors and after large support demonstrations in Russia.
On April 30, the Navalnyj Foundation was added to Russia’s financial monitoring service Rosfinmonitoring’s list of extremists.
Source: NTB
Moved to Siberia
According to a spokesperson, Navalnyj has been transferred to a penal colony in Yamal-Nenets and he is in good condition. The area the 47-year-old is in now is located in Northern Russia, a part of Siberia 1900 kilometers northeast of Moscow.
Now, the 47-year-old’s lawyer has met with him. According to Reuters, this is the first meeting between Navalnyj and his lawyers since December 6.
“Thank you to our supporters, activists, journalists, and media who are concerned about Alexei’s fate and who do not get tired of writing about the situation,” says Navalnyj’s lawyer Ivan Zhdanov, according to Reuters.
Russia’s leading opposition politician
Navalnyj is Russia’s leading opposition politician. His organization has worked to expose corruption among senior Russian officials. He also organized major demonstrations against Putin.
In 2020, Navalnyj was poisoned with the military nerve agent novichok. He was near death and was evacuated to Germany for treatment. Upon his return to Russia in January 2021, he was arrested. Navalnyj had been released in another case with the condition to report to the police weekly.
The prosecution alleged that he violated the reporting requirement during his hospital stay in Germany.
Navalnyj claims that Putin is behind the poisoning, but the Kremlin denies this. In December 2020, it was revealed that agents had been shadowing Navalnyj long before he was poisoned.
