 Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been removed from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned since the middle of last year and his current whereabouts are not known, his allies said on December 11.Navalnyaids have been preparing for his expected transfer to its special regime colony, the harshest grade in Russia's prison system. After he was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison, on top of 11.5 years he was already serving Dot Navalny's spokeswoman Kara. Yarmish said staff at the IK-6 facility in Melakobo, 235 km, 145 miles east of Moscow, had told his lawyer waiting outside that the opposition leader was no longer among its inmates. Where they have taken him, they refused to say, she said on social media platform X that his disappearance comes at the start of the campaign period for a presidential election in which Vladimir Putin confirmed on Friday that he would stand for another six-year term. Navalnyade Leonid Volkov posted on X that the timing was 0% coincidence and 100% direct manual political control from the Kremlin. He added, it is no secret to Putin who his main opponent is in these elections. And he wants to make sure that Navalny's voice is not heard. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. Putin and his spokesman make a point of never referring to Navalny by name in an attempt to portray him as politically irrelevant. They say he is treated like any other prisoner. The process of transferring prisoners by rail across Russia's vast territory can take weeks, with relatives and family unable to obtain information about their whereabouts and well-being until they reach their destination. In order to prolong his personal power, Putin is crushing the neighboring country, killing people there and now throwing a huge number of prisoners in this war.