MOSCOW, Dec 12, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The Kremlin on Tuesday criticised what it
called "interference" by the United States in the case of jailed opposition
leader Alexei Navalny, whose allies have said they do not know where he is.

Allies have offered reward for any information about Navalny, who Amnesty
International said "may have been subjected to an enforced disappearance".

The United States a day earlier said it was "deeply concerned" by Navalny's
team saying they have had no access to him for almost a week and reports that
he was taken out of the prison where he has been held for months.

"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 told reporters.

A court this summer prolonged Navalny's sentence to 19 years and ruled that
he be moved to a harsher -- "special regime" -- prison.

Navalny's allies linked his disappearance and possible transfer to a
harsher prison with President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he plans to
extend his long rule by running for a fifth presidential term in March.

His team said the politician had missed several court hearings and that
lawyers were told he was removed from his prison.

"Today, Alexei was again not taken to court via video link," his exiled
spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media Tuesday.

"An employee of the IK-6 (prison colony) stated that Alexei 'left the
colony' but apparently nobody knows where he was taken," she said.

It was the seventh day Navalny's allies said they had no contact with him.

"It's impossible to imagine that no one knows where he is," said Ivan
Zhdanov, an exiled Navalny ally.

"We promise a reward for reliable and complete information."

Russia's huge prison system often takes weeks -- or longer -- to move
prisoners between far-flung facilities by rail.

Amnesty International acknowledged "the possibility that he may be in
transit to another prison colony".

But it added that, "as if attempted poisoning, imprisonment and inhumane
conditions of detention were not enough, Alexei Navalny may now have been
subjected to an enforced disappearance."