World leaders reacted with shock and anger Friday to the reported death of Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition figure, in an Arctic prison colony. Authorities did not immediately disclose the cause of the 47-year-old's death, but family members and supporters had long said that Navalny was being denied medical care and subjected to long periods in solitary confinement, NPR reports. Navalny "fought for a democratic Russia," said Christian Lindner, Germany's finance minister. "For that, Putin tortured him to death." More reactions:
- White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Like other US officials, Sullivan said he is still waiting for confirmation of Navalny's death. If it is confirmed, "it's a terrible tragedy and, given the Russian government's long and sordid history of doing harm to its opponents, it raises real and obvious questions about what happened here," Sullivan told NPR.
- Yulia Navalnaya. Navalny's wife spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. She said she didn't know whether to believe news of his death because Putin's government always lies, the Guardian reports. "If this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family," she said. "And this day will happen very soon." Peter Baker at the New York Times reports that the crowd gave her a standing ovation. "In my years of covering international meetings, it's hard to remember a more dramatic moment," he writes.
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. "Putin's Russia imprisoned him, trumped up charges against him, poisoned him, sent him to an Arctic penal colony and now he has tragically died. And we should hold Putin accountable for this," Cameron said at the Munich conference, per the AP.
- Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris, speaking at the same conference, said the death, if confirmed, is "a further sign of Putin's brutality." "Whatever story they tell—let us be clear—Russia is responsible," she said.
- French Foreign Minister Stephane Seourne. "Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression," she said, per Reuters. "His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin's regime. To his family, his loved ones, and the Russian people, France presents its condolences."
- Latvian President Edgar Rinkevics. "Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as the politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin. That's a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia's current regime."
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "For more than a decade, the Russian government, Putin, persecuted, poisoned and imprisoned Alexei Navalny, and now reports of his death," Blinken said, per CNN. "If these reports are accurate, our hearts go out to his wife and to his family," he said. "Beyond that, his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built."
Two days before his death was reported, Navalny was ordered to serve more time in a special punishment cell at the Arctic prison, the
New York Times reports. Spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said it was his 27th term in a punishment cell. "Navalny faces a 15-day stint in solitary confinement, adding to the 293 days he's already endured," Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe," said in a
post on X Thursday. (More
Alexei Navalny stories.)
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