Opposition politician Ilya Yashin, serving an eight-year sentence for an article on so-called fakes about the Russian army, was taken away from penal colony No. 3 in the Smolensk region in an unknown direction. This is reported by lawyer Tatyana Solomina.
Also missing from the colony in the Arkhangelsk region was 19-year-old Kevin Lik, who was sentenced to four years for sending pictures of a military unit to “a representative of a foreign country.” Lik’s disappearance was reported by his mother, who received a notification from a food delivery service to FSIN facilities.
The seventh political prisoner for the last two days, whose whereabouts are unknown, was St. Petersburg artist and activist Daniil Krinari, sentenced to five years under the article on confidential cooperation with a special service of a foreign state, international or foreign organization or their representatives. He was taken away from Kapotnya pre-trial detention-7 in an unknown direction, the activist’s support group reported.
On Monday, it became known that four Russian political prisoners who were in colonies or pre-trial detention centers were taken away from them. Among them are former heads of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa and Tomsk, Lilia Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, who were sentenced to long terms under the article on the activities of an extremist organization, human rights activist Oleg Orlov, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in the case of so-called discrediting the Russian army, as well as artist Sasha Skochilenko, who was sentenced to seven years in the article on so-called fakes about the army. In all of these cases, no advance notice of the transfer was given.
Lawyers have not yet suggested whether this could be a coordinated action by the Russian authorities or a coincidence.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitrii Peskov refused to comment on the topic of a possible exchange of prisoners, whose disappearance has been reported in recent days.
Earlier it became known that Yashin was transferred to the strictest detention regime – in a cell-type room. And on July 20, for the first time in his detention since 2022, he was not allowed a lawyer.
Ilya Yashin is one of the most famous imprisoned Russian opposition activists. He has not admitted guilt. Human rights organizations consider the politician a political prisoner.
Following the death of Alexei Navalny in prison, Yashin asked world leaders to press the Russian authorities for the speedy release of another opposition activist, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for cases of state treason, collaboration with an undesirable organization and fakes about the Russian army. Yashin noted that both Navalny and Kara-Murza “created personal problems” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s entourage.
Yashin himself noted that in the case of a hypothetical exchange of prisoners from Russian colonies and prisons for Russians convicted in the West, he would not want to be exchanged, as he had previously deliberately stayed in Russia and had no intention of emigrating.
