Ukraine said Thursday that "security agencies of other countries" appeared to have orchestrated the disappearance of a Russian opposition activist, who said he was kidnapped and forcibly taken to Moscow. "Most likely it was security officials or security agencies of other countries," interior ministry spokesman Volodymyr Polishchuk told the Interfax news agency in the first official acknowledgement from Ukraine that the activist was forcibly removed from its territory.
"It is clear that it was not criminal elements," he said. Leonid Razvozzhayev, who is in a Moscow jail, has said he was kidnapped in Kiev by masked men and taken across the Russian border where he was tortured into confessing to a plot to foment riots against President Vladimir Putin.
Razvozzhayev told rights activists who visited him in Moscow's Lefortovo prison on Tuesday that he was kidnapped while seeking asylum in Ukraine. His claim was backed by a statement by the United Nations refugee agency, which said it was "deeply concerned" after he unexpectedly disappeared while meeting rights lawyers in Kiev. On Tuesday a spokesman for the Ukrainian border guards, cited by Interfax, said that Razvozzhayev crossed the border into Russia on October 19 and made no complaint at the time. The Ukrainian interior ministry had said Monday it had no information on his disappearance, while the Ukrainian security services (SBU) said they received no request from Moscow to detain the activist.