German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday (February 16) said he was "very sad" about reports on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying it was a "terrible" sign of how Russia as a country had changed in recent years.
"Ladies and gentlemen, before I report on our talks and the cooperation between Germany and Ukraine, let me turn to a piece of news that has now reached us all. It has not yet been conclusively confirmed, but we must assume with a high degree of probability that it is true, namely that Mr Navalny has died in a Russian prison. And that is something that is very depressing. I met Mr Navalny here in Berlin when he was in Germany trying to recover from the poisoning attack and I also spoke to him about the great courage it took to go back to the country. And he has probably now paid for this courage with his life. But we now, if we didn't already, know exactly what kind of regime this is. Anyone who voices criticism, who stands up for democracy, must fear for their safety and their lives. And that is why we are all very depressed. We feel with the family, the wife and child and all the relatives and friends. And this is a terrible thing, also as a sign of how Russia has changed after the hopeful developments that unfortunately now feel a long time ago, which were in the direction of democracy. This is no longer a democracy, and has not been for a long time now," Scholz said.
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, wrote on the X social network that the European Union places all responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny on the Russian leadership.
"Alexei Navalny fought for the values of freedom and democracy. For his ideals, he made the ultimate sacrifice. The EU holds the Russian regime for sole responsible for this tragic death. I extend my deepest condolences to his family. And to those who fight for democracy around the world in the darkest conditions. Fighters die. But the fight for freedom never ends," Michel wrote.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday he was "deeply saddened and disturbed" by the reports on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
"We need to establish all the facts, and Russia needs to answer all the serious questions about the circumstances of his death," Stoltenberg said.
NATO countries are telling on themselves with their rush to judgment after Alexey Navalny’s death, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"The leaders of NATO countries have exposed themselves with their knee-jerk reaction to Navalny’s death, making direct accusations against Russia. No forensic examination has been conducted yet but the West has already drawn conclusions," she wrote on Telegram.
According to the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, Alexey Navalny, who was serving his prison term at Penal Colony No. 3, felt ill after a walk on February 16, and collapsed. Although medical workers and the ambulance team that arrived at the scene did everything possible to resuscitate him, their efforts were in vain. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Navalny’s death had been reported to President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny, twice sentenced to probation earlier, was put on a wanted list for repeatedly violating his probation over his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. On February 2, 2021, a Moscow court sentenced him to real prison time instead in lieu of his suspended sentence. He was also found guilty of contempt of court and election campaign fundraising fraud in March 2022 and of creating an extremist community in August 2023.
