Russia moves Putin critic Alexei Navalny to new ‘correctional facility’
- The announcement comes after Navalny’s allies say he has not been seen by his lawyers since December 6 and raised the alarm about his whereabouts
- His allies have been preparing for his expected transfer to a ‘special regime’ colony, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being moved to a new prison in another part of the country and his arrival there will be disclosed in line with the law, Russia’s prison service was cited as saying on Friday.
Navalny’s allies, who had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” colony, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system, say he has not been seen by his lawyers since December 6 and have raised the alarm about his whereabouts.
The process of moving prisoners by rail across the world’s largest country can take weeks, with lawyers and family unable to obtain information about their location and well-being until they reach their destination.
Sota.vision, an online Russian-language news outlet that does a lot of court reporting, said a note on Navalny from the prison service in the Vladimir region, where Navalny was being held in a penal colony 235km (145 miles) east of Moscow, had been read out at a court session on Friday.
Sota.vision, whose own founder and editor-in-chief have been designated “foreign agents” by the authorities, cited the note as saying:
“Alexei Navalny left the Federal Penitentiary Institution IK-6 in the Vladimir region for a correctional facility located outside the Vladimir region, in accordance with the Moscow City Court verdict of August 4, 2023.”
His arrival at the new facility, which was not named in the note, would be disclosed within the framework of current legislation, the note said.