Alexei Navalny Prime Political Rival Of Russian President Vladimir Putin Goes Missing Just Before Presidential Polls

Alexei Navalny, the prime opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin

According to his associates, Alexei Navalny has been taken out of the IK-6 penal colony in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow. It is unknown where the opposition politician from Russia is now. Alexei Navalny’s spokesman Kira Yarmysh said that staff at the IK-6 colony in the town of Melekhovo had informed his lawyer that the opposition leader was no longer among its inmates, as his aides prepared for his potential transfer to a harsher-regime colony after he was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison, according to news agency.

Presidential elections in Russia round the corner

“Where they have taken him, they refuse to say,” Kira Yarmysh said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

The absence of Alexei Navalny coincides with the commencement of the presidential election campaign, in which Vladimir Putin is seeking reelection for a another six-year term. Leonid Volkov, an assistant to Alexei Navalny, stated on X that the timing was “100% direct manual political control from the Kremlin and 0% coincidence.”

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Vladimir Putin behind the missing Alexei Navalny?

“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,” he said. The claim of Alexei Navalny’s disappearance was not addressed by the Kremlin.

Through his attorneys, Alexei Navalny has frequently blasted the Kremlin, detailing his imprisonment and denouncing Vladimir Putin for the conflict in Ukraine. October saw the arrest of three of his attorneys on charges of engaging in “extremist” behavior.

Srishti Verma