On Monday, the United States said it was concerned by claims from Navalny’s team that they have been unable to contact him for a week and that he has been moved to an undisclosed location.
“We are talking about a prisoner who has been found guilty according to the law and who is serving his prison sentence. Any interference, including by the United States, is unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Washington also said on Monday that Navalny should be released immediately. According to the US, he should not have been imprisoned at all.
Navalny’s team said the politician, who is serving a 19-year prison sentence, had missed several court hearings and that his lawyers had been informed he had been moved to an unspecified location.
“Today, Aleksei was not brought to court again via video link,” his spokeswoman Kira Jarmyš said on social networks.
“An employee of the IK-6 penitentiary stated that Alexey had ‘left the colony,’ but apparently no one knows where he was taken,” she added.
According to A. Navalny’s team, no news has been received from the opposition leader for seven days.
This summer, the court extended Navalny’s sentence to 19 years and decided that he should be transferred to a stricter prison.
A. Navalny’s allies associate this situation with the Kremlin master Vladimir Putin’s statement that he intends to participate in the presidential elections to be held in March of next year.
In Russia’s vast prison system, it often takes weeks to move prisoners from one facility to another by train.
#Kremlin #told #intervene #Navalny
2024-08-10 19:35:20
