Where Is Kremlin Critic Alexei Navalny?

By RMN News Service

Multiple reports suggest that the whereabouts of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny are not known after he was allegedly removed from prison.

Quoting Navalny’s lawyer, the reports and tweets reveal that he has been removed from jail in the Vladimir region, but the authorities refuse to disclose his location.

It is reported that the opposition leader Navalny – who is a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin – was being held in the Kolchugino detention center in the Vladimir region northwest of Moscow while in quarantine before serving his sentence in a penal colony.

And, once again, @navalny’s whereabouts are unknown. This morning, his lawyer arrived at the detention facility where he had be held. For hours, he got the runaround from officials. Finally, at 2pm, he was told that Navalny was not longer there. #lawlessness https://t.co/mIscvlyPLS

— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) March 12, 2021

Alexei’s lawyers were not allowed to meet him on Friday (March 12) and were told that he had been transferred without revealing his new location.

Meanwhile, Russian police detained around 150 people at a meeting of independent and opposition politicians in Moscow on Saturday (March 13), accusing them of links to an “undesirable organization.”

Navalny is moved in secret from the penal colony where he was transferred only 10 days ago. His lawyers don’t know where he is. Meantime The EU Council of Europe demands that Russia abides by the decision of the ECHR and releases him immediately. https://t.co/HddJ7TncIm

— Arkady Ostrovsky (@ArkadyOstrovsky) March 12, 2021

Reuters reports that the detentions come amid a crackdown on anti-Kremlin sentiment, following the arrest and imprisonment of Navalny who returned to Russia in January after recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Siberia.

In order to get Navalny released from jail, his supporters had planned to hold major rallies on Saturday and Sunday in Moscow.