Vladimir Kara-Murza at an appeal against his prison sentence, 31 July 2023. Photo: Maxim Shemetov / REUTERS / Scanpix / LETA

Russian political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza is being transferred from the Siberian penal colony where he has been serving his sentence for treason to another facility, the Federal Penitentiary Service told Reuters on Wednesday, without specifying where he was being taken.

Kara-Murza’s lawyer had earlier described being denied access to his client twice in the past 48 hours to independent Russian TV channel Dozhd.

Sergey Safronov said that he had been denied access to Kara-Murza both on Tuesday or Wednesday by the administration of Penal Colony № 6 in Omsk, where the outspoken opposition politician is serving a 25-year sentence for spreading “false information” about the Russian military, participating in the activities of an “undesirable organisation” and treason.

Safronov told independent media outlet Agentstvo that despite receiving assurances from the court that Kara-Murza was still in the facility, he had found it “hard to believe”, adding that: “The story is indeed strange and does not look like the truth.”

In early July, amid severely failing health, Kara-Murza was transferred from his penal colony to a prison hospital, where he was also initially denied access to his lawyer.

While his destination is unclear, Kara-Murza may be the ninth high-profile political prisoner to have suddenly been transferred in the past few days, further fuelling rumours of a significant prison exchange being prepared.

Formerly the co-chair of murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov’s Foundation for Freedom and a former vice president of the Free Russia Foundation, Kara-Murza is one of Russia’s highest profile opposition politicians and received a Pulitzer prize in 2024 for his columns for The Washington Post “insisting on a democratic future for his country”.