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 really want to believe a rag-tag team of supporters broke him out of prison, and are planning a massive election effort to get him in and Putin out. I know it’s fantasy, but don’t tread on my dreams.
While his treatment is appalling, Navalny isn’t that far from Putin on the spectrum and things wouldn’t be that different if the roles were reversed.
You’d be surprised how much changes from sole rotation of personnel.
Mind you, people wouldn’t be calling Putin a tyrant if he left after his second term. Yet he didn’t, that mofo rigged the system in his favour during that presidency, and… well, you know the rest.
Rotation is unimaginably more important than actual personas.
Incremental change is often the best we can hope for in this world.