Alexei Navalny Is Missing

He's been moved from Moscow prison, may be in a camp
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2021 7:21 AM CST
Allies Have No Idea Where Alexei Navalny Is
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a dock in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 20, 2021.   (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been moved from a Moscow prison to an undisclosed location, according to aides, who think he may have been sent to a prison camp. Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev arrived at the Moscow prison to meet with his client but was told he wasn’t there, the BBC reports. "They didn't tell anyone where he is being sent," Navalny lawyer Olga Mikhailova tells AFP, which reports the anti-corruption activist's family is also in the dark. Human rights activist Eva Merkacheva believes Navalny has been taken to a penal colony. "There are just no other options," she says, per the BBC. She adds the move could violate the law, which apparently requires that Navalny serve out his sentence near the capital.

With credit for time served, Navalny was sentenced to serve more than two years in prison last month after officials accused him of breaking the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement. Navalny notes he was unable to check in with prison officials because he was in a coma in Germany, recovering from a nerve agent poisoning linked to Russia's Federal Security Service. Many world leaders say the case is politically motivated. European Union leaders called for Navalny's immediate release on Thursday, per Reuters. European Council President Charles Michel said "foreign ministers reached a political agreement to impose restrictive measures against those responsible for his arrest and sentencing." (President Biden has also spoken out.)

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