Anti-Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reportedly been sent to a Russian penal colony outside of Moscow to serve out his prison sentence, a public commission said Sunday.
It was uncertain where Navalny was located since Thursday, until it was learned that he was brought one of Moscow’s most infamous jails, Reuters reports.
Navalny was arrested after returning to Russia from Germany reportedly for violating his parole.
He has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, and was recently transferred to a penal colony in the Vladimir region, according to the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission. The location is in the town of Pokrov, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Moscow, according to state news agency TASS.
Activist Ruslan Vakhapov, of the prisoners' rights group Jailed Russia, said that conditions at the penal colony were especially severe.
"In short, it’s a bad colony," Vakhapov told Reuters.
Prisoners are used by the colony administration to help control the inmate population, the activist explained.
“If there is a need to prevent Navalny from communicating with others, nobody would talk to him,” he said. "(If anything happens), he wouldn’t be able to ask for help until his lawyer arrives."
Navalny will reportedly be quarantined as a precaution against COVID-19 before being integrated fully into the colony, according to Reuters.
Navalny's imprisonment sparked massive violent demonstrations by activists in late Janary across Russia. Navalny is responsible for heading a movement against the current Putin administration.
Riot police broke up protests across Russia in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, detaining more than 5,000 people who had braved the bitter cold and the threat of prosecution to demand he be set free https://t.co/JRq3331MID pic.twitter.com/PWltuuM2yx
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 1, 2021
For years the Russian authorities made out Alexei Navalny was no threat to them. But the riot police & detentions across Russia today suggest the Kremlin's more worried than it’s been letting on. Our report for @BBCNews @BBCWorld Camera @AntonChicherov Producer @LizaShuvalova pic.twitter.com/w9YrKdIKdY
— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) January 23, 2021
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