Russia's Navalny held in prison camp east of Moscow

Around one and a half months after being sentenced in a court ruling that was criticized internationally, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been taken to a Russian penal camp.

He is being held in the Vladimir region about 100 kilometres east of Moscow, a message posted on his Instagram account said on Monday, along with a photo of himself with new, very short haircut.

He is under constant surveillance, he said. "But if you take it with humour, it is possible to live," he wrote.

Although he believes the numerous media reports about torture in the camp, he has not observed any violence so far, the 44-year-old wrote.

At the end of last week, it became known that Navalny had been taken away from a pre-trial detention centre, but there had been no sign of life from him for days after that.

Waiting for information

On Monday, the opposition leader's lawyers said they waited for hours outside the camp for information, but received none.

Over the weekend, numerous users on social networks called for information about his whereabouts under the hashtag "Where is Navalny."

At the beginning of February, Navalny was sentenced to several years in prison for violating parole conditions in an earlier criminal case - he was at the time recovering from a poison attack in Germany.

Germany, the EU and the US had demanded Navalny's release.