Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin and an outspoken opponent of his invasion of Ukraine, has been reportedly transferred out of his prison colony to a high-security facility known for the systematic abuse of inmates.
Oleg Yazhan, chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission of the Vladimir region, told state media that Navalny had arrived in “IK-6,” referring to prison in Melekhovo, some 150 miles east of Moscow.
But Navalny’s aides said they could not confirm that he had been transferred to Melekhovo and could not account for his whereabouts, though his legal team had been told he was being moved.
Earlier on Tuesday, Navalny’s allies had sounded an alarm, saying he was missing from the Pokrov penal colony, where he had spent months behind bars. The lawyer who went to see Navalny was told, “there is no such convict there,” and was turned away.