Navalny transferred to unknown location, spokesperson says

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been transferred to an unknown location, his spokesperson said Tuesday.

Kira Yarmysh, a spokesperson for the Kremlin critic, said on Twitter that Navalny was transported from his current prison. The opposition leader’s lawyer went to visit Navalny and was told he wasn’t there, Yarmysh said.

The U.S. has denounced Navalny’s detention, with Navalny previously saying the charges against him are “politically motivated.”

He was first arrested last year for alleged embezzlement and breaking his parole conditions by leaving the country. Navalny went to Germany in 2020 after he was poisoned, with the Kremlin critic accusing the Russian government of the attack. 

Neither Navalny’s lawyers nor his family were notified of his transfer, Yarmysh said.

“There were rumors that he was going to be transferred to the high-security penal colony IK-6 ‘Melekhovo’, but it is impossible to know when (and if) he will actually arrive there,” the spokesperson said. 

“The problem with his transfer to another colony is not only that the high-security colony is much scarier. As long as we don’t know where Alexei is, he remains one-on-one with the system that has already tried to kill him, so our main task now is to locate him as soon as possible,” Yarmysh added. 

The transfer comes a week after Navalny lost an appeal to overturn the “inclined to commit crimes of a terrorist or extremist nature” label the Russian government put on him. 

At the end of May, Navalny said the Russian government was also charging him with creating an extremist group with the purpose of inciting hatred toward “officials and oligarchs.”

The new charge could add an extra 15 years on top of the 2.5 years he is currently serving.