Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been declared missing by his lawyers and allies just days after Vladimir Putin announced he would run for a fifth presidential term next year.
Mr Navalny, 47, who is serving a 19-year-term on charges of extremism, was due to appear in court on Monday via videolink but did not show up, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
His lawyers said they have not been able to contact him since last Tuesday and that his whereabouts are now unknown.
The Russian opposition figure has been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned from Germany having recovered from a nerve agent poisoning attempt that he blamed on the Kremlin.
I still don’t understand why he committed suicide-by-Putin.
Did he really have more influence as a martyr in prison than a free man in exile?
I think there were two choices: stay out of Russia and be dodging Putin assassination attempts the rest of his life, or return to Russia and hope his arrest and treatment spark real change/protest/revolt in Russia.
He gambled on the latter and it did not work out in his favor.
We’re talking about him aren’t we? If he were a free man in exile, what are the odds you’d be reading his name this morning?
He could be feeding quotes to the news every single day and the western media would eat it like cereal. I believe he would have way more impact if he didn’t gave up.
Decent? I know I’ve heard about him before he decided to go to Russia to be arrested and slowly killed.
Prolly about as often as we hear Snowden.
Puticide has become a real epidemic in Russia. There are calls for the government to do more to combat it but there has been little response even though data suggests a steady increase since Putin took office.