“Polar Wolf,” the IK-3 penitentiary colony in Kharp where Alexey Navalny is currently being imprisoned, is “one of the northernmost and most remote colonies.”
After losing contact with him for more than two weeks, associates of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny announced on Monday that he had been transferred to a prison colony in the Arctic, CNN reported.
“Alexey has been located.” He is currently in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District’s Kharp town, specifically at IK-3. Today, his attorney paid him a visit. Aleksei is doing well, according to a statement made on X by his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh.
Previously, he was detained in the Vladimir area of central Russia, some 140 miles (230 kilometers) east of Moscow. However, according to his attorneys, they haven’t been in contact with him since December 6. Within Russia’s jail system, transfers are handled in secrecy, and prisoners may go weeks without speaking to anybody.
”Polar Wolf,” the name of the IK-3 prison colony in Kharp where Navalny is currently being kept, is ”one of the northernmost and most distant colonies,” according to Ivan Zhdanov, the manager of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
“There are severe conditions there, with a unique regime in the permafrost zone.” Mr. Zhdanov commented on X, “It is extremely difficult to get there, and there are no letter delivery systems.”
The most well-known opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny, is currently serving a 19-year term for acts of extremism. After escaping a poisoning attempt, he organized massive anti-government protests before being imprisoned in 2021, according to an AFP report. Since then, he has been imprisoned three times and held in isolation for months in Penal Colony No. 6 due to supposed small-time offenses. He has denied any wrongdoing and said that it is purely political in nature.
Some supporters think that when Vladimir Putin declared his candidacy for the March presidential election in Russia, he was purposefully keeping his identity a secret.
Both the US and the EU have demanded that Navalny be freed, denouncing his convictions as being driven by politics. The United States expressed “deep concern” over his whereabouts as well.
“We are deeply concerned about the whereabouts of Aleksey Navalny, who has now been missing in Russia’s prison system for nearly three weeks,” Secretary Antony Blinken wrote on X. We demand again that he be freed immediately and that Russia stop suppressing independent voices.
[…] "Polar Wolf," the IK-3 penitentiary colony in Kharp where Alexey Navalny is currently being imprisoned, is "one of the northernmost and most remote colonies." After losing contact with him for more than two weeks, associates of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny announced on Monday that he had been transferred to a prison colony […]
[…] losing contact with him for more than two weeks, associates of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny announced on Monday that he had been transferred to a prison colony in the Arctic, CNN […]