Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP 5:35 p.m., February 16, 2024

The announcement of the disappearance of Alexei Navalny sparked a wave of indignation. The French political class and the international community point to the responsibility of the Russian state in the death of Vladimir Putin's main opponent, while paying tribute to his memory and his courage. 

The announcement of the death of Alexeï Navalny did not fail to provoke a reaction from the French political class. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, expressed his “anger and indignation”. He wanted to salute the “commitment” and “courage” of Vladimir Putin’s opponent. “In today’s Russia, free spirits are put in the gulag and condemned to death,” he reacted on the social network X. “Thoughts for his family, his loved ones and for the Russian people.

In today's Russia, free spirits are put in the gulag and sentenced to death. Anger and indignation.



I salute the memory of Alexeï Navalny, his commitment, his courage. Thoughts for his family, his loved ones and for the Russian people.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 16, 2024

“Honor his resistance”

The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, said that “this was tragic news for all defenders of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. After him, Marine Le Pen presented her condolences to the family of this “political activist committed to the defense of democracy”. A sober statement from the 2022 presidential candidate, Alexeï Navalny, called to vote for his opponent, Emmanuel Macron, accusing the RN of compromising with the Russian president. 

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had described Alexeï Navalny as a "liberal opponent heavily marked by anti-Semitism", denounced "a crime", also pointing out "the repression of which the Russian authorities are capable". “Honor to its resistance,” he wrote on a land of asylum for political opponents now imprisoned in Russia. 

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“The death of Navalny is unbearable and must make us all angry, (he) today becomes the symbol of resistance to the oppression that Vladimir Putin exercises on his people”, reacted for her part on the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet. “A planned, wanted and provoked death. “Thus end today, in full view of all, the opponents of the dictator,” said Modem leader François Bayrou. “If we can kill a man, we cannot not kill his ideas", declared the former Horizons Prime Minister and potential candidate for 2027, Édouard Philippe. For the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, "Navalny was murdered by a system which does not allow contradiction ".

Alexei Navalny “paid for his courage with his life”

This disappearance also caused a reaction from the international community, which points to the responsibility of the Russian state in the death of Alexeï Navalny. “No matter what story they tell, let's be clear: Russia is responsible,” says US Vice President Kamala Harris. Antony Blinken underlines "the weakness and corruption" of Vladimir Putin's system: "His death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of a single man only underlines the weakness and corruption at the heart of the system that Putin built". 

The European Union holds "the Russian regime" "solely responsible for the tragic death" of the Kremlin opponent, declared the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. The Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, ruled that Russian President Vladimir Putin should “be held accountable for his crimes”: “It is obvious that he was killed, like thousands of others who were tortured to death because of one person: Putin. 

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LIVE - Death of Navalny: Emmanuel Macron accuses Russia of “sentenced to death” “free spirits”

The head of British diplomacy David Cameron warned on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be “accountable” for the death in prison of Alexeï Navalny, paying tribute to the “courage” of the opponent. For the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, "the death of Alexeï Navalny, during his detention, is a new sad page which represents a new warning for the international community". German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “very saddened” and said that Alexeï Navalny “paid for his courage with his life”. Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny "has just been brutally assassinated by the Kremlin", Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on Friday on the social network X.

Several Russian opponents of the Kremlin also reacted to the death of Alexei Navalny. According to the writer Boris Akunin, he has “become immortal”: “He will end up burying Putin”. The 2021 Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dmitri Muratov, on Friday described the death of opponent Alexeï Navalny in prison as “murder” and “scary news”. Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov said Vladimir Putin had "slowly and publicly murdered" his main opponent "for exposing Putin and his mafia as the crooks and thieves they are."