Where is Alexei Navalny? Putin's opponent remains missing

Speaker - Where is Alexei Navalny? Putin's opponent remains missing

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Russia's most famous prisoner Alexei Navalny remains unsolved after a good week. "Alexei is internationally known. It's impossible to imagine that no one knows where he is," says Ivan Zhdanov, director of the anti-corruption foundation founded by Navalny, in exile in the EU.

The 47-year-old is not currently in prison. Zhdanov also had information spread by the Russian media checked, according to which the fiercest opponent of Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin may have been taken to a remand prison in Moscow for new investigations for the next criminal proceedings. But no answer.

A reward has also been offered for information on the whereabouts of the Kremlin opponent. The German government, the EU and the USA are concerned because Navalny, who is internationally recognized as a political prisoner, is also in poor health. "Alexei is missing," his wife Yulia Navalnya has raised the alarm on Instagram. The couple have two children.

Disappearance probably no coincidence

Navalny has been in custody for almost three years since he returned from Germany in January 2021 - and was detained at the airport in Moscow. He had previously received treatment at the Charité hospital in Berlin following a poison attack. To this day, he and his team are convinced that a Putin-controlled hit squad from the FSB domestic intelligence service was behind the attack with the chemical agent Novichok.

The Kremlin rejects this. It was only in August that his sentence for alleged extremism was increased to 19 years in another trial criticized as a political staging.

Hardly anyone considers it a coincidence that Navalny's disappearance now coincides with the start of Putin's next run for the presidency in the election on March 17. On December 7, Navalny's team launched the "Russia without Putin" campaign. The Kremlin's opponents are calling on citizens to vote for any candidate - just not for Putin, who had the constitution changed so that he could run again.

The elections are a parody. "But every election, even the most rigged, is a time of doubt. People think about who is in power and why," says the campaign website. The main task of the opposition and honest citizens is therefore to address these doubts and make people realize that Putin is harming the country.

Moscow's power system put to the test

"For Putin, the 2024 elections are a referendum on the approval of his actions, on the approval of the war," the appeal states. However, the majority no longer want to see him in office. "The voting results will be falsified, but our task is to make it clear to everyone that Russia no longer needs Putin."

Navalny's team also published a video of a large advertising wall erected on the street in Putin's home city of St. Petersburg with the words "Russia" and congratulations for the New Year as well as a QR code. Anyone who downloads the code on their cell phone will be taken to the opposition's page entitled "Russia without Putin". The campaign has gone down well and the authorities are now even afraid of QR codes and are checking them, according to Navalny's team.

With his fight against Putin, which he also waged from prison, Navalny is a thorn in Moscow's system of power, even in custody. Recently, he has repeatedly used his appearances at various court proceedings, which he himself is also conducting against the penal system, to criticize Russia's leadership and, above all, Putin's war against Ukraine. However, on several occasions Navalny was not connected to the trials via video as usual, which the authorities explained with technical difficulties.

Hardly any contact with Navalny for some time

However, Navalny's colleague Zhdanov has since published a video on Telegram in which a judge appears perplexed that Navalny is not appearing at the trial. It was also confirmed in court that Navalny is no longer in the IK-6 prison camp in the Vladimir region. However, there was no indication of his new whereabouts there either.

Navalny himself had recently complained that he had been denied an urgently needed visit to the dentist for a long time. And he criticized being completely cut off from the outside world. "100 percent of the letters that come from the lawyers are confiscated by the censors as 'criminal'," he said. Navalny's movement is classified as "extremist" in Russia. His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said that even letters from Navalny himself were no longer being delivered.

Navalny has long complained of a lack of medical help as well as harassment and even torture in the prison camp. The latest footage in court shows an emaciated and visibly weakened man. It is suspected that he may have been transferred to a new prison camp - possibly even further away from Moscow to make contact with him more difficult. These transfers often take weeks in Russia without relatives receiving any news of the prisoner's whereabouts, as human rights activists report.

The prison system, however, remains silent. Following criticism from the USA, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov once again denied interfering in Russia's internal affairs. The Kremlin does not know where the prisoner is - and is not interested in him. Peskov said: "We have neither the intention nor the possibility to follow the fate of prisoners and the process of their stay in appropriate facilities."