CNN
—
lawyer alexei navalny On Monday, they announced they had lost contact with the Russian opposition leader, who is believed to be imprisoned in a penal colony about 150 miles east of Moscow, and was missing.
Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August after being found guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activities and numerous other crimes. He was already serving an 11-and-a-half year sentence in a maximum-security facility for fraud and other charges he denies.
Navalny’s supporters say his arrest and imprisonment is a politically motivated attempt to suppress his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lawyers have made several attempts to enter the two penal colonies where Navalny, who has serious health problems, is believed to be, press secretary Kira Yarmysh said on Monday’s X broadcast. Yarmisz added that he was informed that the 47-year-old man was neither in the IK-6 nor the IK-7 penal colony.
“Neither IK-6 nor IK-7 responded to them on Friday or today,” Yarmysh posted, adding that Navalny has been missing for six days. Navalny was finally imprisoned in the IK-6 penal colony east of Moscow.
Navalny poses one of the most serious threats to Putin’s legitimacy during his more than two decades of rule. He organized anti-government street protests and used his blog and social media to expose allegations of corruption in the Kremlin and Russian companies.
The dissident was taken from Russia to Germany in 2020 after being poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Navalny was airlifted from the Siberian city of Omsk and arrived at a Berlin hospital in a coma.
A joint investigation by CNN and the Bellingcat organization suggested that the Russian Security Service (FSB) was involved in Navalny’s poisoning. Russia denies involvement in Nalvany’s setup. Putin said in December 2020 that if Russian security services had wanted to kill Navalny, they “would have finished” the mission.
Navalny was jailed upon his return to Russia in January 2021 on charges of violating the terms of his probation related to a 2013 fraud case, which was also dismissed as politically motivated. Ta.
From prison he campaigned against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sought to rally public opposition to the war.
“We will campaign against war. And against President Putin. That’s right. In a statement on his website, Navalny said: “It will be long, stubborn and tiring, but the fundamentals that make the people oppose war. “This is a politically important campaign.”
“The number of years doesn’t matter,” Navalny said when he was sentenced to 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony in August.
“I fully understand that, like many political prisoners, I too am serving a life sentence. Life is measured by my longevity or the longevity of this regime,” he said in a statement.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
