MOSCOW: Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been tracked right down to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, his spokeswoman stated on Monday (Dec 25), after supporters misplaced contact with him for greater than two weeks.
Navalny was tracked right down to the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp within the Yamal-Nenets area, about 1,900km northeast of Moscow, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh stated.
Navalny’s lawyer managed to see him on Monday, Yarmysh added.
“Alexei is alright,” she stated.
Navalny’s allies, who had been making ready for his anticipated switch to a “particular regime” colony, the harshest grade in Russia’s jail system, stated he had not been seen by his legal professionals since Dec 6 and raised the alarm about his destiny.
“Many due to our supporters, activists, journalists and the media who’re involved about Alexei’s destiny and who don’t get bored with writing in regards to the state of affairs,” Navalny lawyer Ivan Zhdanov stated.
Navalny’s new house, often known as the “Polar Wolf” colony, is taken into account to be one of many hardest prisons in Russia. Most prisoners there have been convicted of grave crimes. Winters are harsh – and temperatures are because of drop to round -28 levels Celsius there over the following week.
About 60km north of the Arctic Circle, the jail was based within the Nineteen Sixties as a part of what was as soon as the GULAG system of pressured Soviet labour camps, in response to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
“The situations there are harsh, with a particular regime within the permafrost,” stated Leonid Volkov, an aide to Navalny. He stated it was tough to speak with prisoners held on the distant website.
