Washington, Dec 23 (EFE).- Washington is “deeply concerned” about missing Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and demands the Kremlin release him, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday.
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny leaves a prison after serving a 30-day sentence in Moscow, Russia, 23 August 2019. EFE-EPA FILE/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Former lawyer Navalny, 47, is one of President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critics, and has in the past campaigned against corruption and organized anti-government protests.
In 2021 he was arrested on his return from where he was being treated for near-fatal nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin, and has been sentenced to around 30 years in prison for various offenses, widely seen as politically motivated.
On Dec. 15. the Russian federal penitentiary service (FSIN) said Navalny had been transferred from the maximum security Vladimir prison, where he had been held since June 2022, but refused to comment on his welfare or location.
“We are deeply concerned about the whereabouts of Aleksey Navalny, who has now been missing in Russia’s prison system for nearly three weeks,” the head of US diplomacy said on social networks.
“We once more call for his immediate release and an end to the continued repression of independent voices in Russia.”
Navalny’s lawyers have not had with their client since Dec. 5 and Russian authorities have refused to provide any information.
On Dec. 7 from prison, Navalny urged Russian to vote for anyone but Putin in the election called for Mar. 17.
“As if attempted poisoning, imprisonment and inhumane conditions of detention were not enough, Aleksei Navalny may now have been subjected to an enforced disappearance,” Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Deputy Director, said in a statement on Dec. 12.
“In its resolve to suppress its critics, the Kremlin will stop at nothing.”
The opposition leader’s ers have launched the global campaign #WhereIsNavalny. EFE
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