Russia Transfers Opponent Navalny to Penal Colony in the Arctic

Kira Yarmysh, spokesperson for Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, announced that Russian authorities have transferred the opponent—whose whereabouts had been unknown for about three weeks—to a "penal colony" in the Arctic region, according to information reported by France 24 on Monday. "The settlement or penal colony is a remote settlement, often an island or distant colony, used for the exile of prisoners and their isolation from the rest of society, governed by a commander or overseer with absolute authority." Yarmysh stated on the X platform, "We have located Alexei Navalny... he is now in IK-3 in the 'Kharb' colony located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and he was visited by his lawyer today... Alexei is in good health." Navalny, a prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of "extremism." News about the prisoner had been cut off from his relatives and collaborators since early December when he was imprisoned in a colony located in the Vladimir region, about 250 kilometers from Moscow. The small town of Kharb, with a population of nearly 5,000, is located in the remote Yamalo-Nenets region of northern Russia and houses several penal colonies. The lack of news about Navalny has raised concerns in many Western capitals and among officials at the United Nations. According to the ruling against Navalny for "extremism," the opponent must serve his sentence in one of the "special regime" colonies. Transfers from one penal colony to another in Russia often take weeks of staged train travel, during which prisoners' news is cut off.