Navalny arrives at Russian penal colony

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has arrived at a penal colony to serve his prison term, Russia's state-owned RIA news agency says.

Navalny has been transferred to a colony in the Vladimir region east of Moscow, the secretary of Moscow's Public Monitoring Commission was quoted as saying by RIA on Sunday.

The commission works closely with Russian prison authorities and has access to people in custody.

Navalny, who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for parole violations he says were trumped up, will reportedly be quarantined before joining other prisoners in the colony.

His lawyers believe he could be released in 2023 with time spent in detention and under house arrest taken into account.

Navalny's ally Leonid Volkov said earlier on Sunday that Navalny's family and lawyers had not been officially informed about his whereabouts since Thursday, when they learned he had been moved from a Moscow jail.

"We demand official information about where Navalny is, and access to him for his lawyers," Volkov tweeted.

Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia after recovering for months in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning. He blames the poisoning on the Kremlin.

His arrest and imprisonment have fuelled a huge wave of protests across Russia. Authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown, detaining thousands.