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After two weeks with out phrase from Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most distinguished opposition determine, his legal professionals and allies, fearing the worst, are working a frantic marketing campaign to seek out him.
Their efforts have included requesting info from dozens of Russian prisons and taking to social media to lift consciousness of Mr. Navalny’s disappearance and to name on the Russian authorities to disclose his whereabouts.
Many Russians residing overseas have gone to their nation’s diplomatic missions to protest. Some have held up posters saying “The place is Navalny?”
Dmitri S. Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin, advised journalists on Friday that the Kremlin had “neither the chance, nor rights or need to hint the destiny of convicts,” referring to Mr. Navalny.
Here’s what we find out about Mr. Navalny and his disappearance.
When did Mr. Navalny disappear?
The final time Mr. Navalny’s legal professionals heard from him was on Dec. 5. The next day, certainly one of his legal professionals waited for seven hours exterior the penal colony the place Mr. Navalny was being stored however was not allowed to see him, Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman for Mr. Navalny, stated. Mr. Navalny then failed to seem by video hyperlink at a scheduled courtroom listening to the subsequent day, Dec. 7.
Within the days after Mr. Navalny’s disappearance, his allies grew extra alarmed as letters despatched to him went undelivered and the authorities declined to disclose his location to his legal professionals. On Dec. 11, officers within the jail colony that had been holding Mr. Navalny — in Melekhovo, a city about 160 miles east of Moscow — advised his legal professionals that he was not listed amongst its inmates, Ms. Yarmysh stated.
Mr. Navalny was scheduled to seem for varied courtroom hearings on Monday, she added. One of many courts at which he was supposed to seem suspended his case as a result of it couldn’t find him, Vyacheslav Gimadi, a member of Mr. Navalny’s authorized workforce, posted on social media.
The place may he be?
As a part of his final sentence, delivered by a Russian courtroom in August after a conviction for supporting “extremism,” Mr. Navalny was scheduled to be transferred to certainly one of Russia’s “particular regime” colonies, identified for his or her harsh therapy of inmates. There are not less than 25 such prisons, scattered throughout Russia from the nation’s European half to the Arctic Circle and the Far East.
However he had not been moved by early December. Mr. Navalny steered in a sequence of social media posts in November that the rationale was as a result of Russian investigators had been unwilling to journey to distant particular regime colonies as they pursued additional circumstances towards him.
If he has now been moved to a type of penal colonies, which may clarify his present disappearance.
Detainees being transferred to distant prisons in Russia can spend lengthy weeks being shuttled between trains in particular jail rail automobiles and have little or no entry to the surface world.
By legislation, kin ought to obtain notification inside 10 days after an inmate’s arrival at a brand new vacation spot, normally by mail, and such a letter can take as much as 20 days to reach, stated Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer. In line with Mr. Smirnov, the Russian jail system considers details about such transfers a state secret.
“A switch between prisons is essentially the most harmful time for a convict,” Mr. Smirnov stated in a response to written questions. “Throughout that interval, they alter a large number of transit factors and stay with none solution to contact the surface world,” he added. He additionally famous that, based mostly on previous expertise, prisoners could possibly be in transit and incommunicado for 2 to a few months.
Final week, Baza, a Russian information outlet, reported that Mr. Navalny had been transferred to a detention heart in Moscow to await trial on one other prison cost. However Ivan Zhdanov, the pinnacle of Mr. Navalny’s anticorruption basis, reported that the group had checked all Moscow detention facilities with out discovering him.
On Saturday, Olga Romanova, a Russian jail rights activist, stated on Fb that Mr. Navalny was present process therapy in a jail hospital within the metropolis of Vladimir, close to Melekhovo. However that assertion has not been verified.
Why was Mr. Navalny imprisoned?
Mr. Navalny, 47, is the one Russian opposition determine of the previous decade to mount a major political problem to Mr. Putin. He established a strong group, drawing 1000’s of Russians to his rallies nationwide, and engaged many younger folks in politics.
He has been in custody in Russia since his detention in January 2021 in a Moscow airport, the place he arrived after spending months in Germany recovering from poisoning by a nerve agent. Mr. Navalny and Western governments accused the Kremlin of poisoning him, which Russian officers denied.
Since then, the Russian authorities have introduced forth a large number of recent costs towards Mr. Navalny. In line with Ms. Yarmysh, he’s presently a defendant in 14 prison circumstances and faces potential sentences of as much as 35 years in jail.
What actions did he pursue in jail?
Since coming into the Russian jail system, Mr. Navalny has filed a string of lawsuits towards the authorities.
A lawyer by occupation, he has filed fits demanding entry to respectable dental care, complaining about loudspeakers in his cell that repeatedly aired Mr. Putin’s speeches and protesting towards wiretapping in a room he makes use of to fulfill with legal professionals.
Regardless of his imprisonment in more and more harsh circumstances, Mr. Navalny has remained a major voice in Russian political life. With the assistance of his legal professionals and political allies, he has printed articles and manifestoes, and recurrently posts on social media.
Since Mr. Navalny’s disappearance, his allies have known as on his followers to vote for any candidate apart from Mr. Putin within the presidential election in March, aiming to amplify the seen dissent towards Mr. Putin’s insurance policies, together with the invasion of Ukraine.
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