A total of 43 countries, including the United States, members of the European Union and the United Kingdom, launched a joint call on Monday for an international investigation into the death of opposition figure Alexei Navalny during his detention in Russia .
“We are outraged by the death of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, for whom ultimate responsibility lies with the president [russe Vladimir] Putin and the Russian authorities,” European Union Ambassador Lotte Knudsen told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, speaking on behalf of the 43 countries.
A fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny died on February 16 in obscure circumstances in a penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism”, and was buried on Friday in Moscow. His death sparked a wave of condemnation in the West.
“Russia must authorize an independent and transparent international investigation into the circumstances of this sudden death,” say the 43 countries, assuring in a press release that this death constituted a “new sign of the growing and systematic repression in Russia”.
These states more generally call on Russia to release political prisoners, journalists, human rights defenders and opponents of the war in Ukraine.
“We call on the Russian Federation to end this climate of impunity and create a safe environment for political opposition and critical voices,” they write.
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