Moscow, Russia

Alexey Navalny's lawyers on Monday (Dec 11) said that they had lost all contact with the imprisoned Russian opposition leader and his whereabouts are unknown.

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Navalny's lawyers made several attempts to get access to two penal colonies near Moscow where he was believed to be but they were informed that the 47-year-old was neither at IK-6 nor at IK-7.

Spokesperson Kira Yarmysh took to social media platform X and said, "Today, as on Friday, the lawyers tried to get to IK-6 and IK-7 —  two colonies in the Vladimir region where Alexey Navalny might be. They have just been informed simultaneously in both colonies that he is not there. We still don't know where Alexey is."

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Yarmysh said staff at the IK-6 facility in Melekhovo, 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow, had told his lawyer waiting outside that the opposition leader was no longer among its inmates.

"Where they have taken him, they refuse to say," she said on social media platform X.

Navalny's disappearance '0% coincidence, 100% direct political control,' says aide Volkov

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Navalny aide Leonid Volkov in a posting on X said 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."

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Earlier this month, Navalny was charged by Russian prosecutors under article 214 of the Kremlin's penal code, to which he had responded by saying, “I don’t even know whether to describe my latest news as sad, funny or absurd.”

Also read: Russia to hold presidential vote in four occupied Ukrainian regions

He said that his charges were part of the Kremlin's desire to initiate a new criminal case against him every three months. Never before has a convict in solitary confinement for more than a year had such a rich social and political life, he added.

Alexei Navalny, 47, who is one of the most ardent opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, known for campaigning against official corruption and organizing major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in 2021 after he returned to Russia from Germany. 

Since then, he has been handed three prison terms.

In August, the Kremlin critic was given an extra 19 years in prison in addition to a sentence of 11.5 years he had been already serving. His political movement has been outlawed and declared "extremist."

(With inputs from agencies)