Attorneys: Russian opposition leader Navalny without a trace

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was removed from a detention center in late February. Navalny’s lawyers say on Twitter that it is not clear where he is now.

On March 3, Navalny announced that he was being held at a pre-trial detention center in Colvugino. He may have been isolated there and is now being transferred to a penal colony 100 kilometers east of Moscow and is serving his 2.5-year prison sentence.

This morning his lawyers said after a long wait at the Colchicino detention center that their client was no longer there. Prison officials did not want to comment further.

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In Russia, Moscow-based correspondent Iris de Graf says no announcement has been made about where prisoners will be taken until they are actually there. “Finally, Navalny has been missing for two days. The hashtag #GdeNavalny, or ‘WaarisNavalny’ has become popular. Family and friends do not know where he was then. We’ll see that hashtag again.”

In mid-February, a key critic of President Putin was sentenced for failing to report to authorities in accordance with the rules following an earlier sentence. He was also convicted of insulting a war veteran.

Shortly after Nalny returned from Germany, he recovered from a poisonous attack. The critic firmly believes that the Kremlin was behind the poisoning.