Navalny Misses Court Date, Raising Alarm Among His Supporters

Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, who is currently serving a 19-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, missed another court date on Monday as his allies expressed concern at not having heard from him for more than five days.

Mr. Navalny, 47, a fierce critic of President Vladimir V. Putin over the past decade and a frequent target of Kremlin attacks, was scheduled to appear in a district court in the city of Kovrov, east of Moscow, via a video link.

But the screen in the courtroom remained dark, and his allies said that they had not been in touch with Mr. Navalny since Tuesday, Kira Yarmysh, his spokeswoman, said on Monday.

According to Ms. Yarmysh, the authorities in Mr. Navalny’s penal colony have been blaming problems with electricity for his absence. But given the harsh nature of his imprisonment, serving one sentence after another in a “punishment” cell, his allies said they were convinced that there must have been other factors at play.

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