‘They’ve taken away something important’

Kremlin spokesman suspects Navalny’s team of concealing evidence

Ekho Moskvy: Yesterday, Alexey Navalny demanded the return of the clothes that were confiscated from him by official bodies of the Russian Federation. Did you see this message? Does the Kremlin agree that the Interior Ministry should return these clothes or not?

Dmitry Peskov: You know, with all due respect to the patient, we don’t deal with clothes — it’s not our department.

Ekho Moskvy: Yes, but this is possible evidence in the case.

Dmitry Peskov: You see, the fact is that we had heard statements previously about the fact that accompanying persons, along with the patient, had taken away a large amount of evidence, proof and so on. We don’t know what else they‘ve taken, but we know for sure that they’ve taken away something important. Something that those involved in the verification activities clearly need. So I can’t say anything here.

Ekho Moskvy: And the fact that the deadline for the preliminary inquiry has expired — is the Kremlin monitoring this somehow or not?

Dmitry Peskov: Surely the law enforcement agencies monitor this themselves, they act in strict accordance with the law of the Russian Federation. You see, they’re experiencing certain problems because a lot of evidence, unfortunately, was taken away. Here you have to understand: they are, consciously or unconsciously, trying to hide some evidence of what’s behind this. Unfortunately, we are still experiencing problems receiving information from our counterparts, primarily from [Germany]. So there are certain problems with obtaining data and they certainly complicate all investigative actions.