- Alexei Navalny has been moved to the IK-3 penal colony, his spokesperson said on X.
- Earlier this month, Navalny's lawyers said they had lost contact with him.
After a nearly three-week disappearance, incarcerated Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reappeared at a third penal colony. Earlier this month, his lawyers said that his whereabouts were unknown and that authorities would not say if he had been transported elsewhere.
Navalny is now situated at the IK-3 prison in the town of Kharp, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter. The settlement is located above the Arctic Circle, and over 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow.
Yarmysh said his lawyer visited him on Monday and that he is "doing well."
We have found Alexey @navalny. He is now in IK-3 in the settlement of Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. His lawyer visited him today. Alexey is doing well.
— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) December 25, 2023
Navalny — a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin — was carrying out a decades-long sentence at a penal colony around 120 miles east of Moscow, but his lawyers lost contact with him on December 6th.
The disappearance was made more alarming by an illness Navalny was facing at the time, requiring him to be placed on an IV drip.
Since August, Navalny has been serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism, adding to a previous 9-year conviction.
He has been jailed since 2021, an incarceration his supporters argue is politically motivated. In the years leading up to his arrest, he garnered a reputation for calling out corruption and heading massive anti-government protests in Russia.