No Longer In Prison Where He Was Detained, Russian Opposition Politician Alexei Navalny's Whereabouts Are Unknown

Alexei Navalny. (Wikimedia Commons/Micha Total Siergiejevicz)

JAKARTA - The whereabouts of Russian opposition politician Alexei Naval are currently unknown, after he was transferred from the prison where he had been held since the middle of last year, his colleagues said.

Navalny's transfer to a 'special regime' colony, the harshest level of Russia's prison system, had been anticipated by his colleagues, after he was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison in August, on top of the 11.5 years he had already received.

The process of moving prisoners by train across Russia's vast territory can take weeks, while lawyers and families are unable to obtain information about their location and whereabouts until they arrive at their destination. It is unclear whether Navalny has been transferred to the new prison.

Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said staff at the IK-6 facility in Melekhovo, 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow, had informed Navalny's lawyers waiting outside that the opposition leader was no longer among its detainees.

"We don't know where he is at the moment. He could be in any special regime colony and there are about 30 colonies throughout Russia," he told Reuters, as quoted on December 12.

"We will try to go to every existing colony and look for it," he continued.

News of Navalny's disappearance comes at the start of Russia's presidential election campaign, with Vladimir Putin last Friday confirming his re-nomination for another six-year term.

Navalny's team is preparing to launch an "anti-Putin" campaign, ensuring Navalny's disappearance will not halt those efforts, Yarmysh said.

"Right now he is completely alone and he is completely in the hands of the people who once tried to kill him. We don't know what they will do. This is why it is very important to talk about it and try to find him as soon as possible," explained Yarmysh.

"This is about his life and his health and about his safety," he said.

Separately, the United States said it was very concerned about Navalny's situation.

"He should be released immediately. He should never have been imprisoned," said White House National Security spokesman John Kirby.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin and Russia's prison service did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meanwhile President Putin and his spokespeople have made it a point to never mention Navalny by name, in an effort to portray him as politically irrelevant. They said he was treated like any other prisoner.

"We are worried about his health condition and we are trying to find out where exactly he is now, but it is difficult," said another Navalny aide, Lyubov Sobol.

It is known that even though he is in prison, Navalny, through his lawyer, often posts sharp attacks on the Kremlin via social media, describing his ordeal behind bars and condemning President Putin for the war in Ukraine. However, his isolation deepened when three of his lawyers were arrested in October on suspicion of “extremist” activities.

Navalny himself has said that the many accusations leveled against him, ranging from fraud and contempt of court to a series of extremist activities, were all fabricated to silence his attacks on Putin.

Russian authorities view Navalny and his supporters as extremists with ties to Western intelligence services, intent on trying to destabilize Russia. President Putin has warned Western countries that any interference inside Russian territory would be considered an act of aggression.