It appears that a well-known opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin went missing from prison. Alexei Navalny spent 2021 incarcerated in a colony for extremely dangerous offenders. Now it doesn’t list him as an inmate, no one can reach him, and the jail administration won’t reveal his whereabouts.
Standing Up to Putin
Prior to his foray into politics at the turn of the century, Alexei Navalny worked as a corporate lawyer. He swiftly ascended through the ranks of the Russian United Democratic party, becoming deputy chairman of the Moscow branch after being elected to a Moscow city council in 2002 on that platform. After a falling out with the party chairman in 2007, he went on to found NAROD, a political party that opposed illegal immigration and targeted the oligarchs and corrupt politicians who had stolen from Russia since the Soviet Union’s collapse. NAROD’s platform included measures to curb immigration.
In 2011, Navalny was arrested at a Moscow protest against alleged vote manipulation in that year’s parliamentary elections, along with 300 other NAROD members. The Putin dictatorship is not fond of anti-corruption groups. Upon his release, he immediately began to voice his belief that Putin will manipulate the 2012 presidential election, solidifying his position as the most prominent critic of the autocratic president.
He finally ran for president in 2018 after years of defying Putin. A chemical attack nearly blinded him in one eye, and he was routinely hounded by Putin backers and perhaps state agencies during the campaign. He was under constant scrutiny for alleged financial misdeeds during this time, which he vehemently rejects.
He managed to withstand what appeared to be a nerve agent poisoning in 2020, a tactic used by Russian intelligence officers. His 2021 arrest upon his return to Russia from Germany was the last straw; he was subsequently imprisoned for an alleged offense for which he had earlier been granted a suspended sentence.
The Missing Prisoner
Navalny has maintained contact with the outside world through his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh during his imprisonment, but communication was abruptly severed in early December. Almost a week had passed since she last heard from him, Yarmysh informed reporters on December 11. The administration of Penal Colony 6 has informed Navalny’s legal team that their client’s name is no longer listed as an inmate. The prison, according to Yarmysh, is being coy about his whereabouts. Another adjacent penitentiary colony was already investigated by one of his attorneys, but the personnel there deny that Navalny is a inmate.
Although Navalny may still be in the system, his name may not be on a roster at his new location just yet due to the infamously slow process by which records are updated upon a prisoner’s transfer, which can take weeks. However, there is a high mortality rate in the penal camps, and the system is infamously harsh. His loved ones, coworkers, and advocates will continue to have cause for concern until Navalny makes an appearance.
