(Moscow) The Kremlin denounced on Tuesday the “unacceptable” interference of the United States in the Alexeï Navalny case, Washington having said it was “very concerned” about the fact that the relatives of the imprisoned opponent no longer have news of him for a week.
“This is a prisoner who was found guilty […] and who is serving the sentence he received. We consider that any interference, particularly on the part of the United States, is unacceptable,” criticized Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.
Supporters of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny said Monday that they had been trying to contact him in vain for almost a week and did not know where he was.
Washington reacted by saying it was “very concerned” by the lack of information regarding Mr. Navalny’s whereabouts, once again calling for his immediate release.
“He should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, adding that U.S. authorities were seeking to know more.
For those close to Navalny, the fate of the opponent is directly decided in the Kremlin, which the anti-corruption activist accuses of having ordered his poisoning in 2020 which he survived.
His spokeswoman, Kira Iarmich, said Tuesday that an employee at the penal colony where Navalny was held until then “said that Alexei had ‘left their colony’,” without saying where he had been transferred.
“Today, Alexei was not present in court via video link,” added Mr.me Yarmysh, on social networks.
“It is impossible to imagine that no one knows where he is,” said one of his relatives Ivan Zhdanov. “We promise a reward for reliable and complete information,” he stressed.
Navalny, who was sentenced in August to a new 19-year prison term for “extremism,” is to be sent to a “special regime” penal colony.
This category of establishments is renowned for having the harshest conditions of detention in the Russian prison system, and are often located in very isolated regions. However, the timetable for such a transfer is never communicated in advance.
Transfers from one penal colony to another in Russia often take several weeks of train travel with stages, with detainees’ relatives not being heard from during this time.
Amnesty International has admitted “the possibility that he is in transit to another penal colony”.
But, deplores the human rights organization: “As if the poisoning attempts, imprisonment and inhumane detention conditions were not enough, Alexeï Navalny could now have been the victim of forced disappearance”.