Missing: Putin Critic Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, is missing from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned on trumped-up charges since last year, his team said on December 11.

Navalny’s supporters said he did not appear for a videoconference court hearing on Monday; prison officials blamed a power outage. Later that day, Navalny’s lawyers learned that he was no longer listed as prisoner at the IK-6 penal colony near Moscow.

His team at first assumed he was transferred, but they were unable to find his name listed in other penal colonies. “We still don’t know where Alexei is,” his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X.

Not a coincidence: Navalny’s disappearance came just days after he called on Russians to vote for “anyone but Putin” in the upcoming presidential election in March.

Navalny is known for exposing corruption in Putin’s rule and organizing various protests against him. The true reason for his incarceration was not breaking Russian laws but exposing Putin’s lawlessness.

In August, he was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison on top of the 11½ years he was already serving. He has been treated poorly in prison and has been the victim of multiple poisonings.

The Trumpet says: Putin has likely silenced Navalny and cut him off from any supporters before the election campaign. Such dictatorial moves, combined with Putin’s goal to enlarge Russia’s borders, shows that he is fulfilling a landmark prophecy.

Learn more: Read The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’