The captured Russian opponent Alexei Navalnyfrom whom the people around him had received no news for almost three weeks, He was transferred to a penal colony in the remote Jarp region of the Russian Arctic.three months before the presidential elections.

‘We found Navalni. “He is in prison colony number 3 in the city of Jarp,” he stated. Kira Yarmish on the X Network, adding that the opponent is “doing well” and that his lawyer visited him this Monday.

Navalni, charismatic anti-corruption activist and sworn enemy of the president Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for ‘extremism’. He was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Russia after recovering in Germany from a poisoning that he claims was orchestrated by the Kremlin.

According to US intelligence services, Russia tried to undermine elections in nine democratic countries.

The 47-year-old opponent had disappeared from the prison colony in the Vladimir region, 250 km from Moscow, in early December.

The circumstances of Navalny’s isolation

The town of Jarp, with 5,000 inhabitants, is located in Yamalia-Nenetsia, a remote region in northern Russia. It lies beyond the Arctic Circle and is home to several penal colonies.

According to one of his close associates, Ivan Jdanov, it is “one of the northernmost and most remote colonies” of Russia and conditions there are “difficult,” as he stated in X.

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According to the ‘extremism’ verdict handed down against him, The opponent must serve his sentence in a colony of the ‘special regime’, the category where detention conditions are stricter. and that it is normally intended for those sentenced to life imprisonment or for the most dangerous prisoners.

“From the beginning it was clear that the authorities wanted to isolate Alexei, especially before the presidential elections” scheduled for March 2024, Khdanov added.

Transfers from one center to another in Russia can take several weeks, in phases. And those around the detainees receive no information during that period.

This lack of news about Navalny raised concerns in several Western countries and at the UN.

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But his new place of confinement is far from bringing relief.

“We are happy that we have received information about this [Navalni] was located. However, We remain deeply concerned about the well-being and conditions of his unjust detention,” a US State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

Navalny’s movement has been methodically suppressed by Russian authorities in recent years and many of his associates and allies are in prison or in exile.

In early December, authorities launched new legal action for “vandalism” against the opponent, which could lead to another three years in prison. (JO)