Vladimir Putin this week informally kicked off his presidential election marketing campaign by inaugurating two nuclear submarines in Russia’s north ― whereas his largest political foe, Alexei Navalny, vanished from the radar.
Navalny’s allies say they have been unable to contact the imprisoned opposition politician since Tuesday final week.
They are saying the jail the place he was being held in Melekhovo, some 200 kilometers east of Moscow, initially attributed his disappearance to electrical energy issues, which they think was a stalling tactic whereas Navalny was being moved.
On Monday, these suspicions have been confirmed when Navalny’s lawyer was reportedly instructed by jail employees that the opposition politician was now not there.
Navalny’s supporters have been anticipating such a growth ever since a choose in August sentenced him to a further 19 years in a “particular regime” jail on extremism expenses.
However they and a few unbiased analysts say the transfer has been intentionally timed, coming shortly after Putin on Friday introduced he would — shock, shock — run for a fifth time period in March’s vote.
“That is 0 p.c coincidence and one hundred pc handbook steering from the Kremlin,” Navalny’s shut ally, Leonid Volkov, wrote on Telegram.
“Putin is aware of who his primary opponent is at these ‘elections.’ And he needs to verify Navalny’s voice isn’t heard,” Volkov added.
“This fashion they wish to isolate Alexei so he can’t obtain data and may’t affect occasions,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh instructed the Russian-language Breakfast Present radio broadcast primarily based in Riga on Tuesday morning.
The EU’s prime diplomat Josep Borrell on Tuesday described Navalny’s disappearance as “extremely worrying.”
“Russia’s political management is answerable for his security & well being in jail for which they are going to be held to account,” he wrote on X, previously Twitter.
Regardless of being remoted and below strict surveillance, Navalny has managed to get his message out with frequent posts on social media together with, final week, a plan encouraging Russians to launch an informational marketing campaign towards Putin.
Navalny’s crew mentioned he might have been moved to any of an estimated 30 prisons throughout Russia.
“There’s nothing stopping them from hiding him for so long as they need,” Yarmysh mentioned.
Responding to a query on Navalny, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday mentioned the Kremlin had “neither the intention nor the capability” to trace inmates’ areas.
In the meantime, Putin on Monday made his first post-election announcement journey to northern Russia’s Severodvinsk, the place he attended a flag-raising ceremony for 2 nuclear submarines for Russia’s Pacific Fleet.
“With such ships and such weapons, Russia will really feel that it’s secure,” he mentioned.