Russian ambassadors summoned as Alexei Navalny’s body may be kept for weeks
- Germany, Sweden, Finland and Baltic States were among nations to summon Russian ambassadors for urgent talks
- Alexei Navalny’s unexpected death at the age of 47 at an Arctic penal colony has generated international outrage
Russian ambassadors were summoned across Europe on Monday to answer questions over the death of leading opposition dissident Alexei Navalny, as the Kremlin cracked down on mourners and continued to keep his body under wraps.
The European Union plans further sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s regime and the United States is also considering adding to the plethora of measures already taken against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
Russian authorities, which have yet to release Navalny’s body or produce an autopsy report since his death in prison on Friday, have detained people laying flowers or otherwise commemorating the opposition figure.
In St Petersburg more than 199 people were ordered either detained or fined and 154 were placed in a holding cell, most for several days. There have been more than 400 arrests in more than 30 cities across the country, civil rights activists said.
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Tributes pour in after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison
A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Office said the politically motivated proceedings against Navalny and numerous other critics of the Russian government, as well as inhumane prison conditions, show how brutally the country acts against dissidents.
“We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and expressly call for the release of all those imprisoned in Russia for political reasons,” she said.
Germany, Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States were among nations to summon Russian ambassadors for urgent talks amid fears his death is linked to March’s presidential election in Russia, when Putin is expected to win by another landslide.
The Russian government said investigations into the death continue.
“So far, the results of this investigation have not been published and are therefore not known,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency Interfax.
But Navalny’s spokeswoman said there was little hope of Russia releasing the body to his wife or mother any time soon.
“The investigators told the lawyers and Alexei’s mother that they would not give them the body. The body will be under some sort of ‘chemical examination’ for another 14 days,” Kira Yarmysh wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Navalny’s team accuses the Kremlin of lying and stalling in order to conceal what happened to him. This occurred in 2020, they say, when Navalny survived after being poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, which they believe was ordered by Putin.
Putin has not reacted to the death of Navalny, Peskov said, amid media reports that Putin’s supporters celebrated the dissident’s demise with a concert in Moscow over the weekend.
Former US president Donald Trump has ended his silence about the death but only in reference to himself.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” he wrote on his Truth Social page.
Trump has been widely criticised in US media and by Republican primary rival Nikki Haley for not commenting sooner on the news.
Trump has been accused of being too pro-Putin by the left and some on the right, both during his 2017-2021 presidency and afterwards.
US President Joe Biden, almost certainly Trump’s rival in November’s presidential elections, could hit Russia with more sanctions following the death.
“We already have sanctions, but we are considering additional sanctions, yes,” Biden told reporters.
At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, they also proposed further sanctions against the Kremlin.
“Vladimir Putin & his regime will be held accountable for the death of Alexei Navalny,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell posted on X, adding the sanctions instrument will be named in Navalny’s honour.
Yulia Navalnaya, the dissident’s widow, vowed to continue her husband’s fight for a free Russia.
“I will continue the cause of Alexei Navalny, fight for our country. I call on you to stand by my side,” she said in an emotional video message published on YouTube.
In tears, the mother of two accused Putin of not only killing her husband but also depriving Russia of hope for freedom and justice.
She alleged he had been tortured to death in the prison camp and repeatedly locked up in solitary confinement in a small concrete box, adding that the name of the person who carried out the murder on Putin’s orders will be released shortly.
Russian authorities said 47-year-old Navalny died on Friday after collapsing on a walk in frigid temperatures at the Siberian prison camp where he was serving a long sentence on crimes supporters say were fabricated.
Russia’s Civic Initiative opposition party said it has applied to the Moscow city administration for a memorial march in honour of Navalny and fellow Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, shot dead in 2015.
However, it is highly unlikely authorities will agree to the march.
