Kremlin faces pushback over reporter’s arrest

The Kremlin said yesterday it was carefully monitoring the case of arrested reporter Ivan Golunov and admitted it threw up a “great number of questions”. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov however defended the law enforcement system in general, saying people make mistakes in separate cases. “We are carefully monitoring how this case is developing,” Peskov told reporters. “This concrete case has triggered a great number of questions.” Golunov, a 36-year-old investigative reporter with Meduza, an independent Russian-language media outlet, was detained last week over allegations that he manufactured and dealt drugs. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.