Jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny could be murdered by the Kremlin after suddenly vanishing from brutal penal colony, his allies fear

• Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was last seen by his lawyers on December 6 

Jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny could be murdered by the Kremlin after suddenly vanishing from his penal colony, his allies fear.

The outspoken opposition leader, currently serving a 19-year sentence following fraud convictions, was last seen by his lawyers on December 6, prompting allies to raise the alarm.

Bizarrely, the Kremlin maintains it has ‘no information’ on Navalny since he was moved from a penal colony in the Vladimir region of Russia, about 140 miles east of Moscow. 

Prison authorities have not said where he was transfered to – though a Russian media outlet claimed recently Navalny has been taken to a correctional facility outside of the region.

Maria Pevchikh, the head of Navalny’s FBK anti-corruption group in Russia, said: ‘We are worried for his life. He’s in the hands of the very smae people who tried to kill him before.

‘If they once got an authorisation to murder Navalny, do they have another one now or is the last one still valid? Navalny’s life is constantly at a high risk.’

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov before a court hearing to consider an appeal against his sentence, May 17, 2022

Navalny’s spokeswoman concurred on Friday that Navalny had been removed from the prison and taken to an undisclosed location.

Kira Yarmysh said she was told that Navalny was removed from the Vladimir region near Moscow on December 11, signalling a potential prison transfer.

‘It is not known where exactly’ he was taken, Yarmysh added.

‘I want to remind you that lawyers have not seen Alexei since December 6. Why they were not allowed to meet with him, if Alexei was still in IK-6, we do not know,’ she said, referring to the penal colony where he was last seen.

The Kremlin this week criticised what it called ‘interference’ by the United States in the case after Washington said it was ‘deeply concerned’ by Navalny’s team saying they have had no access to him for almost a week.

‘We consider any interference, including by the United States, inadmissible,’ Kremlin spokesperson said in a conference call with reporters on December 12, the day after Navalny was allegedly transferred.

Asked where Navalny is, Peskov snapped that ‘we have neither the intention nor the ability to track the fate of prisoners and the process of their stay in the relevant institutions.’

France on Friday added its voice to the growing chorus of international concern over the lack of news about Navalny.

‘France considers Russia responsible for the health of its detainees, in particular political prisoners,’ said French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine.

‘The lack of news for the past several days is very worrying,’ he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his speech at the 4th Congress of Russian Railway Workers, on December 15, 2023 in Moscow, Russia

Navalny is serving the long jail term on extremism charges, and a court this summer ruled that he be moved to a more secure, harsh prison.

The lawyer-turned politician has been in jail since 2021, when he returned to Russia after recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

A year later, a Russian judge gave him another nine years in prison on fraud and embezzlement charges.

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