Jailed Russian Opposition leader Navalny moved to undisclosed location
The Hindu
'No such convict here', lawyer told
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been abruptly transferred from the prison where he is serving an 11-1/2 year sentence to an undisclosed location, nearly two years since he was poisoned with what the West said was a nerve agent.
Mr. Navalny, by far Russia's most prominent Opposition leader, casts President Vladimir Putin's Russia as a dystopian state run by thieves and criminals where wrong is cast as right and judges are in fact representatives of a doomed elite.
Mr. Navalny's top aide informed about the transfer on the Telegram app on Tuesday.
Just last month, Mr. Navalny lambasted Putin via video link in a Russian court, casting the Kremlin chief as a madman who started a "stupid war" that was butchering the innocent people of both Ukraine and Russia.
When his lawyer arrived at Correctional Colony No. 2, a prison camp in Pokrov, 119 km east of Moscow, he was told: "There is no such convict here," according to Navalny's chief of staff Leonid Volkov.
"Where Alexei is now, and which colony he is being taken to, we don't know," Volkov said in a statement on Telegram.
Mr. Navalny's spokeswoman said there was speculation that he was being taken to the high-security penal colony IK-6 Melekhovo near Vladimir, about 250 km east of Moscow.