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Opposition politician Alexei Navalny: “Brutally murdered by the Kremlin”
Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa
According to Russian information, Alexei Navalny is dead. The 47-year-old is said to have died in custody, the prison administration said. Russian authorities said they were investigating the circumstances of his death.
The first reactions:
Chancellor
Olaf Scholz
said it was courageous for Navalny to go back to Russia. Now he has “paid for this courage with his life.” We now know exactly what kind of regime is in power in Moscow. Russia is “no longer a democracy.”
Charles Michel
, President of the European Council,
is even more specific .
He blames the “Russian regime” directly.
Latvia also accuses the Kremlin of murder. Navalny was "brutally murdered by the Kremlin," President Edgars Rinkevics said on Friday on the online service X. "This is a fact and something you should know about the true character of the current Russian regime."
Norway also made serious allegations against the Kremlin. The Russian government bears a “strong responsibility” for Navalny’s death, wrote Foreign Minister
Espen Barth Eide
on X.
French Foreign Minister
Stéphane Sejourne
said: "His resistance to a system of oppression cost him his life." And further: "His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin's regime."
British Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak
reacted with shock. “This is terrible news,” says Sunak. As the fiercest defender of Russian democracy, Navalny has shown incredible courage throughout his life.
The parliamentary director of the FDP in the Bundestag, Johannes Vogel
, also
blamed Putin. “Putin is a murderer,” explains Vogel via short message platform X. “No one should ever be mistaken about Putin’s deadly brutality.”
Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner
Dmitri Muratov
spoke of “murder.” The journalist told the Reuters news agency that he believed that the prison conditions led to Navalny's death.
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