Speaker - No sign of life from Kremlin opponent Navalny
Following the transfer of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny from the Russian prison camp in the Vladimir region, his team still has no sign of life from the 47-year-old, who is in poor health. A court has now confirmed that Navalny is no longer in the Vladimir region.
"But we still don't know where he is," said Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh. The lawyers have had no contact with him since 6 December. "Why they were no longer allowed to meet him is unclear." Navalny allegedly left the IK-6 detention center on 11 December.
Already missing at court hearing
The team and the lawyers have been trying to find out the whereabouts of President Vladimir Putin 's opponent for more than a week. Last week, the Kremlin's opponents also launched the "Russia without Putin" campaign, with which they are calling on voters to express their protest by voting for other candidates ahead of the presidential election on March 17. Putin is running in the election for the fifth time, and potential contenders are considered to have no chance.
Navalny's team, which works from abroad, raised the alarm for the first time last week after the opposition figure was not connected to court hearings by video as usual. Prison staff had explained the failure of a video link with a lack of electricity, according to Navalny's team.
Now it has at least been confirmed that this was a lie. The concerns about Navalny are also great because he is in poor health and has been calling for medical help for a long time.
Navalny was held in a prison camp in the town of Kovrov in the Vladimir region around 260 kilometers east of Moscow. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison and is internationally classified as a political prisoner. The German government, the USA and the EU had also expressed concern about his disappearance.
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Source: www.stern.de
