Russian opposition leader moved to high-security prison

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin and an outspoken opponent of his invasion of Ukraine, has been reportedly transferred to a high-security facility farther from Moscow.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he was treated at a hospital for nerve agent poisoning, for which he and Western countries have accused the Kremlin.

Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov said that when Navalny’s lawyer arrived on Tuesday at Correctional Colony No. 2, a prison camp in Pokrov, 119 km (74 miles) east of Moscow, he was told: “There is no such convict here.”

“Where Alexei is now, and which colony he is being taken to, we don’t know,” Volkov said on the Telegram app.

But later, regional prison observer Sergey Yazhan said by phone that Navalny had been taken to the IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo near Vladimir, about 250 km (155 miles) east of Moscow.

The reported transfer comes after a March court ruling that sentenced Navalny to an additional nine years in prison on charges of fraud and contempt of court. His legal team appealed, but the decision was upheld in May.

IK-6 has a notorious reputation in the Russian penal system, with widespread claims of torture, beatings, humiliation and rape of prisoners by guards and other convicts.

Russia’s prison service could not immediately be reached for comment.