2023-12-26 12:03:00
Imprisoned Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, whose relatives remained without news for several weeks, assured Tuesday on social networks that he was “fine”, after his transfer to a penal colony in the Russian Arctic.
The journey to his new place of detention, which lasted 20 days, was “quite tiring”, he declared on X (ex-Twitter).
“But I am in a good state of mind, like Santa Claus,” added Alexeï Navalny, referring to his “beard” which grew during this long journey as well as his new winter clothes adapted to the temperatures polar.
“Anyway, don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m relieved to finally be here,” he said.
His relatives announced Monday that they had found him in a penal colony in Kharp, in Yamalo-Nenetsia, a remote region in northern Russia. It lies beyond the Arctic Circle and several penal colonies are located there.
Charismatic anti-corruption activist and number one enemy of Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, 47, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism”. He was arrested in January 2021 upon his return from Russia from convalescence in Germany for a poisoning which he blames on the Kremlin.
He disappeared at the beginning of December from the penal colony in the Vladimir region, 250 kilometers east of Moscow, where he had been detained until then, which meant his probable transfer to another establishment.
Alexeï Navalny indicated that he arrived in his new penal colony on Saturday evening, at the end of a discreet trip and “with such a strange itinerary” that he did not think he would be found by his loved ones before mid-January.
“That’s why I was surprised when the cell door opened yesterday and I was told: ‘a lawyer is here for you,'” he said, saying to himself grateful for the “support” expressed.
In the West, its disappearance caused concern that was not entirely allayed by its reappearance in a very remote region.
The United States said on Monday that it was “deeply concerned” about the “conditions of detention” of Alexeï Navalny, demanding his release.
According to one of the opponent’s close collaborators, Ivan Zhdanov, he is detained in “one of the northernmost and most remote colonies” in Russia, where conditions are “difficult”.
12/26/2023 11:02:31 – Moscow (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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