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On ‘missing’ Vladimir Putin critic Navalny, Kremlin shrugs: 'How would we know’
Alexei Navalny's location inside the prison system remains unknown. He did not show up at a court hearing by video link, his spokesperson said.
The Kremlin criticised "interference" by the United States in the case of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose allies claimed that they do not know where he is. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he was unaware of the whereabouts of Alexei Navalny who has been moved from a penal colony to an undisclosed location.
"We are talking about a prisoner who was found guilty by the law and is serving the prison sentence he received. Any interference, including from the US, is unacceptable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after White House national security spokesman John Kirby called for the immediate release of Russian leader saying "he should never have been jailed in the first place".
Alexei Navalny's location inside the prison system remains unknown. He did not show up at a court hearing by video link, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said as per news agency Reuters. Alexei Navalny had been removed from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned since 2022, his allies said, adding that they were preparing for his expected transfer to a "special regime" colony after he was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison. He had already been serving a 11-1/2 term.
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Alexei Navalny's spokesperson said that staff at the IK-6 facility in Melekhovo had told his lawyer waiting outside that the opposition leader was no longer among its inmates.
"Today Alexei was again not brought to court to appear by video link, but now nobody is talking nonsense about an 'electricity accident'. An employee of penal colony-6 stated that Alexei had 'left their colony, but that he allegedly did not know where he had been transferred to," she claimed.
Alexei Navalny's disappearance comes at the start of the campaign period for a presidential election in March. Vladimir Putin is expected to win another six-year term in the polls.
