Russia: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny moved to 'strict-regime' penal colony

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been moved to a high-security penal colony, his allies said on Tuesday (June 14). Safety concerns have been raised over the shift. Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, was originally in a prison around 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Moscow.

He is serving for violating parole on old fraud charges. In March, the 46-year-old had his jail time extended to nine years. He was found guilty of embezzling donations to his political organisations and contempt of court.

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Olga Mikhailova, one of Navalny's lawyers. said that the officials at his penal colony reported he had been transferred to a strict regime colony.

Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter: "The problem with his transfer to another colony is not only that the high-security colony is much scarier."

"As long as we don't know where Alexei is, he remains one-on-one with the system that has already tried to kill him, so our main task now is to locate him as soon as possible," she added.

Maria Pevchikh, who is one of his close allies tweeted that Navalny did not show up for the meeting with his lawyers. "We have no further information on where Navalny is being taken," she added.

The Russian authorities did not disclose the location of the new penal colony. As per news agencies, it is thought to have harsher conditions than his current prison in the town of Pokrov.

(With inputs from agencies)

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