The imprisoned Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, reappeared in a prison near the Ural mountain range, in the Arctic Circle, after almost three weeks in an unknown whereabouts, as reported today on the social network X by his team of collaborators.
“We have found Alexei Navalny! He is in the IK-3 penitentiary in the town of Jarp, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Today the lawyer saw him. “Alexei is fine,” wrote Kira Yarmish, the opposition’s spokesperson.
The opposition’s lawyers had not contacted their client since last December 5, which alerted his coreligionists and the Western chancelleries.
2,000 kilometers from Moscow
The town of Jarp, which has about 6,000 inhabitants, is located almost 2,000 kilometers from Moscow or about 45 hours by train from the Russian capital.
Jarp is less than 50 kilometers from Salekhard, the administrative capital of this territory that has an area larger than that of France, but is populated by only half a million inhabitants.
According to one of his collaborators in exile, Ivan Zhdanov, the prison is named after “Polar Wolf” and is considered one of the most distant prisons from civilization in all of Russia.
Today, Monday, marked the twentieth day since Navalny’s collaborators raised the alarm about the whereabouts of the opponent, who is serving almost 30 years in prison.
Moved 10 days ago
Ten days ago, the Russian penitentiary services (FSIN) admitted that Navalny had been transferred from the prison where he was serving his sentence in the Vladimir region, but did not specify his new destination.
The FSIN explains that the opponent left prison “by virtue of the ruling handed down by the Moscow Urban Court on August 4”, which included a new sentence of 19 years for extremism.
At the moment, it is unknown if Yamalo-Nenets will be the final destination of Navalni, who was transferred after announcing a campaign against the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in power since 2000.
The process of transferring to another prison, known as “etapirovanie”, can take weeks, during which time the prisoner is often held incommunicado.
International concern about Navalni
Both the United States, the European Union (EU) and Amnesty International (AI) expressed their concern about the fate of Navalny, the Kremlin’s number one enemy.
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, was “deeply” concerned on Saturday about the opacity regarding Navalni’s whereabouts and demanded “once again” his “immediate release” and for the Kremlin to stop “repressing the voices.” independents in Russia.
Navalni asked to vote against Putin
On December 7, Navalny asked from prison to vote against Putin in the March 17, 2024 elections.
Navalny also announced the launch of a website (neputin.org) that asked Russians to support any candidate for the presidency, except Putin.
