Russia says US comments on Navalny whereabouts 'unacceptable'

ISTANBUL

Russia on Tuesday said comments by the US on the whereabouts of opposition figure Alexey Navalny are "unacceptable."

“To be honest, I don’t know about this. Perhaps it was transmitted through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But here we are talking about a prisoner who was found guilty by law and is serving his sentence. And here we consider any intervention by anyone, including the US, unacceptable and impossible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a press briefing in Moscow.

State Department spokesman Mathew Miller told a press briefing on Monday that they do not have any information about Navalny’s whereabouts and are deeply concerned for his well-being after his lawyers said they have not been able to contact him for almost a week.

“We have communicated to the Russian government that they are responsible for what happens to Mr. Navalny, while he is in their custody, and they will be held accountable by the international community,” he added.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 after a hospital stay in Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning. Western countries and Navalny himself blamed Russia for the poisoning, a claim the Kremlin denies.

In August, he was handed a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism, and other crimes. He was already serving an 11.5-year sentence on fraud charges.