A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who was last in contact with his associates 10 days ago, says prison officials told a court in Vladimir, some 200 kilometers east of Moscow, on December 15 that the outspoken Kremlin critic had been transferred on December 11 from the IK-6 facility located in Vladimir region to a correctional facility located outside the region.
"The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) does not say where exactly and where he is now," lawyer Vyacheslav Gimadi wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "We have known nothing about him for 10 days."
Navalny's associates said on December 15 that Judge Olga Yemelyanova of the Vladimir regional court read out FSIN's statement about Navalny's being transferred, saying the transfer was based on a court decision in August that extended Navalny's prison term to 19 years for "creating and financing an extremist group."
SEE ALSO: The Week In Russia: 'An Enforced Disappearance'The August ruling ordered Navalny to serve his term in a "special regime" penal colony, Russia's harshest type of penitentiary, where those sentenced to life in prison and convicts with extensive criminal records are being held.
The process of transferring convicts in Russia, known as "etap," involves "vagonzaks" -- trains specifically designed for prisoners.
Such trains have caged compartments for prisoners, who are provided with little fresh air, no showers, and only limited access to food or a toilet.
The transfers can take days, weeks, or even months as the trains stop and convicts spend time in transit prisons. Convicts almost always face humiliation, beatings, and sometimes even death at the hands of their guards or other convicts.
Harsh rules dating back to Soviet times provide for the prisoners' families and relatives being informed about their whereabouts only after they have reached the destination where they are to serve their terms.