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Mourners in front of the Russian embassy in London on Friday evening
Photo: Daniel Leal / AFP
The British government has summoned diplomatic staff from the Russian embassy following the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The British Foreign Office said on Friday that London wanted to make it clear that it held the Russian authorities "fully responsible" for Navalny's death. Navalny's death in a penal colony in the Russian polar region must be "investigated fully and transparently."
The Foreign Ministry also said that in recent years the Russian authorities had "imprisoned Navalny on false charges, poisoned him with a banned nerve agent and sent him to an Arctic penal colony." Nobody should “doubt the brutality of the Russian system.”
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron had previously said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be held accountable for what happened.” In London, as in other European cities, dozens of people demonstrated in front of the Russian embassy on Friday. They carried banners with slogans in Russian and English such as “Stop Putin,” “Murderer,” and “We are Navalny.”
Also on Friday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described Navalny's death as "terrible news." “As the fiercest defender of Russian democracy, Alexei Navalny has shown incredible courage throughout his life,” the head of government wrote on Friday on the X platform (formerly Twitter). "My thoughts are with his wife and the Russian people, for whom this is a tremendous tragedy."
The prominent Kremlin critic Navalny, who was considered Putin's most important domestic political adversary, died on Friday in a penal colony in the Russian polar region, according to prison authorities. The reasons for his death are being investigated, it said. The 47-year-old's death caused consternation around the world.
tgk/AFP/dpa