Imprisoned Kremlin critic Andrei Pivovarov has actually been transferred to an infamous penal colony where inmates have accused jail authorities of torture, independent media reported Monday after his partners raised concerns over his unknown whereabouts.Pivovarovs associate Tatiana Usmanova told the Novaya Gazeta Europe news website that he has been inside Penal Colony No.

7 in the republic of Karelia in northwestern Russia for almost a month.Prison wardens there positioned Pivovarov inside a cell-type facility until April 30 right away after he showed up there on Jan.

24, the outlet said.

First they hid Andrei from everybody for 30 days and without informing his relatives where he is, Usmanova told Novaya Gazeta.

Then they sent him to this facility where calls and visitations are prohibited.

Pivovarov, 41, was sentenced to four years in jail in July 2022 on charges of undesirable activities.

He rejects the charges versus him.A court in southern Russia upheld the decision in November 2022.

Russian security services apprehended Pivovarov in May 2021 after eliminating him from a flight bound for Warsaw amid a nationwide crackdown on opposition activists.Pivovarov headed exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkoskys Open Russia organization.

Authorities identified Open Russia unfavorable in 2017, a classification that subjects anyone dealing with it to prosecution.

The pro-democracy motions members continued to run as a different legal entity up until May 2021, when it dissolved to safeguard its staff from prosecution.Penal Colony No.

7 acquired notoriety after a variety of its prominent inmates implicated its chief warden of abuse, slave labor, extortion and creating a system of violence.The chief warden was sentenced to 2 and a half years in jail in 2019 on abuse-of-power charges.