Where is Alexei Navalny? Allies lose contact with jailed Russian politician
Colleagues say Kremlin likely shunted him off to a remote penal colony to silence him during the election
Leonid Volkov says it's no coincidence that he and his colleagues have lost touch with imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny just as President Vladimir Putin runs for re-election.
Navalny's staff and lawyers have not heard from him in a week, and prison officials won't tell them where he is.
Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, says he believes Putin has hidden him away so he can't share statements with the public through his lawyers from behind bars during the presidential election campaign
"Whatever happens to Alexei Navalny is defined by Mr. Putin personally," Volkov told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
"[His disappearance] proves that Putin still considers Navalny to be his main rival and he wants to make sure Navalny's silent during the so-called presidential campaign."
Secretive Russian prison transfer
Navalny is a 47-year-old Russian politician and outspoken Putin critic who has organized major anti-government protests in the country. He is serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, which he says are politically motivated.
This is his third stint in prison. He was most recently arrested in January 2021 after returning home from Germany, where he was recuperating from nerve agent poisoning.
He had been serving his latest sentence at Russia's Penal Colony No. 6, east of Moscow. But on Monday, prison officials told Navalny's lawyers that he had been moved from the colony and is no longer on the inmate roster.
The officials didn't say where Navalny went, and nobody has heard from him since.
Prison transfers in Russia are notoriously secretive, with authorities providing no information about the whereabouts of inmates for weeks until they reach another facility and are given permission to contact relatives or lawyers.
"Unfortunately — and that's a scary thing — there is no way for us to find out until he arrives somewhere and he's allowed to get in touch with his lawyers again," Volkov said.
Asked Tuesday where Navalny is, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We have neither a desire nor an opportunity to track down inmates."
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Campaigning from behind bars
Meanwhile, on Friday, Putin announced he is seeking another six-year term in the March 17 presidential election.
His critics say his re-election is guaranteed because of his overwhelming control over the country's political scene and widening crackdown on dissent. His previous victories have been met with allegations of widespread irregularities and election fraud.
But even if Putin knows he will win, Volkov says he is still expected to put on a show of campaigning and answering people's questions.
"In this regard, it certainly looks like Putin is very weak because … people want to know, like, when will the war end, how the government wants to deal with enormous poverty in the country," Volkov said.
"Putin doesn't have any answers for these questions. And Navalny is talking only about only this."
Navalny has continued to criticize the Kremlin from behind bars. In comments posted to social media by his staff, he has called for Russia to pull its troops from Ukraine immediately and focus instead on issues at home.
"This is a message that during the political campaign — even this mock campaign — will come through," Volkov said.
Authorities could try to send Navalny to a remote colony further limit his influence, said Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokesperson. "I guess they decided that it would be smarter for them to send him as far away because he's still too loud and too present in the public field," she said.
Worries about his health
The opposition leader's allies are also concerned for his health, saying he recently fell ill in prison and had to be put on an IV drip.
"It looks like it might have been a faint from hunger because he isn't being fed properly, and he doesn't have any ventilation in his cell and he doesn't have any, like, proper exercise time," Yarmysh said.
Volkov says any illness is a life-threatening one when you're in a Russian penal colony where conditions are notoriously poor and there is no oversight.
"The local administration are stars and the gods. They define the rules. There are no restrictions for them. They can do whatever they want, and they know they will not be punished for whatever they're doing," he said.
"And for Navalny, they always create especially bad conditions."
In the meantime, Navalny's colleagues intend to look for him by sending him letters to all 30 of Russia's high-security penal colonies, and waiting to see which ones are sent back.
"He has to be in one of them," Volkov said.
With files from The Associated Press. Interview with Leonid Volkov produced by Sarah Jackson
