Alexei Navalny: Destination unknown as Putin makes opponent disappear
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been moved to an undisclosed detention centre outside Moscow, his lawyer and a member of a rights organisation said this evening.
One of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, said on Twitter that Navalny was transferred to a prison camp but it was not clear which one or where.
Navalny, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime, was jailed earlier this month after he was accused of violating parole conditions imposed after his conviction in 2014.
Navalny has repeatedly claimed the case was trumped up for political reasons, which the Russian authorities deny, but both the European Union and the US have criticised the trial.
Navalny is due to spend between two and two and a half years in prison, according to his lawyers.
Earlier this year, Navalny was detained upon arrival in Russia, coming from Berlin, where he had been recuperating after he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in August of last year.