Vladimir Putin's predominant political opponent Alexei Navalny is lacking after being eliminated by officers from a jail colony in Russia, his allies say.
The alarm was raised after the politician failed to point out for a scheduled courtroom look through videolink on Monday, with buddies saying that they had additionally not heard from him in six days.
The 47-year-old has been behind bars since January 2021 on what supporters say are politically-motivated prices.
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Mr Navalny was transferred to the IK-6 jail in Melekhovo, east of Moscow, final 12 months, however his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh mentioned workers there had now confirmed he had been faraway from the ability.
She added on X, previously Twitter: "Where they have taken him, they refuse to say."
Ms Yarmysh mentioned jail officers claimed he had not appeared through videolink as anticipated due to "electricity problems".
It comes simply days after Mr Putin announced he would stand for re-election next year - probably protecting him in energy till a minimum of 2030.
Mr Navalny's aide Leonid Volkov additionally posted on X that the timing was "0% coincidence and 100% direct manual political control from the Kremlin."
He added: "It is no secret to Putin who his main opponent is in these 'elections'. And he wants to make sure that Navalny's voice is not heard."
The politician has been one of many Russian president's fiercest critics in recent times and helped organise large-scale anti-Kremlin protests.
But he was arrested in January 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany, the place he had been recuperating from being poisoned by a nerve agent.
Mr Navalny blamed the Kremlin for the assault, an allegation denied by Russian authorities.
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Mr Navalny lost an appeal in September against a 19-year prison term for alleged extremist exercise which was handed down in August and got here on prime of an present 11-and-a-half 12 months sentence for fraud and different prices.
Following the most recent sentencing his allies mentioned that they had been anticipating him to be moved to a "special regime" jail colony, the harshest grade in Russia's jail system, however had not been given any additional data.
Navalny’s staff say this sort of an prolonged interval with out contact with him is unprecedented.
It is sort of potential that the authorities have determined now could be the fitting second to switch him to a particular regime colony, as mandated in his final 19 12 months sentence handed down in August.
If so, the switch might take weeks (an disagreeable journey, most certainly by rail), it might be weeks earlier than his legal professionals are knowledgeable the place he's and even longer earlier than they handle to get to him.
Given longstanding issues over his well being, that is worrying.
Leonid Volkov, a Navalny aide, posted that the timing of his disappearance was "0% accidental and 100% directly political manual control from the Kremlin."
To date Navalny’s social media channels have managed a gradual stream of commentary which purports to be from him, and should come through his legal professionals although it might even be written for him by his staff.
It is probably going that his skill to speak with the surface world will diminish or be lower altogether in a particular regime colony, which is the harshest kind of jail Russia has.
Access to legal professionals will most certainly be decreased additionally. So maybe the choice was made to place him out of sight, out of thoughts at this early stage within the presidential marketing campaign.
That mentioned, his anti-corruption basis - labelled a overseas agent in Russia and working now from overseas - is already kicking up a storm and his disappearance simply days earlier than President Putin’s annual press convention brings the subject of Navalny again into the worldwide consciousness, even when solely a minority in Russia will take a lot discover.
Bear in thoughts it is just the very bravest who're ready to characterize him now. Three of his legal professionals have been arrested in October and now await trial on extremism prices.
So a lot for Russian justice.
Supporters mentioned workers at one other jail colony, IK-7, had additionally denied they have been holding Mr Navalny.
However, it may take weeks for prisoners to be transferred between jails and households are generally not informed about their relations' whereabouts till they attain their vacation spot.
A Russian lawyer, who needed to stay nameless, informed Sky News authorized representatives often submit an official request to search out out the place their purchasers are.
"Sometimes they [the colony authorities] simply show you on the database right on the spot, sometimes they just name the region where they are," they mentioned, however added that responses diverse.
Mr Navalny denies all prices towards him.
The Kremlin is but to remark, though it has beforehand accused opposition figures comparable to Mr Navalny of getting hyperlinks with Western intelligence businesses which they are saying need to destabilise Russia.
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