Navalny 'Reappears' At Harsh Arctic Prison In Remote Siberia
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny starting two weeks ago was reported "missing" by his team of lawyers and supporters, as he had disappeared into the Russian prison system after a transfer.
He had up until early December been held at a prison some 150 miles east of Moscow. But he's now reestablished contact with his lawyer and is at a very remote Siberian penal colony. "We have found Alexey," his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on X.
He's now serving his 19-plus year sentence in a remote place called Kharp, in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, which lies almost 2,000 miles from Moscow and is difficult to even reach:
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, said the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp where Navalny is now being held, known as “Polar Wolf,” is “one of the northernmost and most remote colonies.”
“The conditions there are harsh, with a special regime in the permafrost zone. It is very difficult to get there, and there are no letter delivery systems,” Zhdanov wrote on X.
Navalny said in a multi-part message posted to XI: "I'm fine... I'm totally relieved that I've finally made it." He described, "Well, I now have a sheepskin coat, an ushanka hat (a fur hat with ear-covering flaps), and soon I will get valenki (a traditional Russian winter footwear)." He noted too: "I have grown a beard for the 20 days of my transportation."
For various countries' prison systems, including Russia's, it's normal that when an inmate is transferred there's some degree of a lapse in time before family members or lawyers are then later informed where they were moved to.
Weeks ago, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged it off as but a normal part of the Russian administrative system surrounding prisoners and penal colonies. When peppered by questions from reporters, Peskov had responded, "No. I repeat again: we do not have the capacity, or right, or desire, to track the fates of those prisoners who are serving sentences by order of a court."
We found Navalny. He is alive. He was transported to a penal colony in the town of Kharp. It is one of the most remote prisons in Russia located in the far north, beyond the Arctic Circle. Daylight there currently lasts less than two hours. pic.twitter.com/yyrj7S9tgY
— Maria Pevchikh (@pevchikh) December 25, 2023
Navalny's legal team and supporters have long waged a somewhat successful PR campaign to keep his name in the news. For example, Navalny ally Maria Pevchikh had pressured the United Nations Human Rights Committee to help find his exact whereabouts. "What is happening with Alexey is, in fact, an enforced disappearance and a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights. Answers must be given," she said earlier in December.
His supporters have claimed Navalny has the potential to disrupt Putin's 2024 reelection plans, however, it remains that the opposition activist barely has name recognition inside Russia. In August, he was handed an additional 19 years in prison for charges of "extremism" on top of the 11 and a half he was already serving.