(Ottawa) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “monster”, in reaction to the death in prison of Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s number one opponent.
Mr. Trudeau described the Russian dissident as a man who “stood up with extraordinary courage for a better future for Russia and Russians.”
“We know how much it scares and continues to scare (Russian President) Vladimir Putin,” he added in a speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. According to Mr. Trudeau, there is no doubt that Mr. Navalny knew this outcome “would always be a possibility.”
Earlier Friday morning on the X platform, Mr. Trudeau wrote that the dissident “simply should never have been imprisoned.”
“It is important that these events serve as a reminder that we must continue to promote, protect and defend democracy throughout the world,” he wrote. Otherwise, the consequences are too serious. »
In comments broadcast Friday morning on CBC in Manitoba, Mr. Trudeau also declared that this tragedy “reminds the whole world what a monster Putin is.”
He added that there were questions about what really happened to Mr Navalny and that “our confidence in the truth of the Russian authorities on this matter will of course not be really strong”.
He “paid with his freedom”
The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote earlier Friday that the announced death of Alexeï Navalny represented “a painful reminder of the persistence of Putin’s oppressive regime”.
In a brief message published early Friday morning on the X platform, Mélanie Joly asserts that Alexeï Navalny “paid with his freedom in the hope of a better and more democratic future for the Russian people”.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre blamed President Putin for the dissident’s death. “Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny died in prison. Putin had imprisoned Navalny for opposing the regime. Conservatives condemn Putin for his death,” he wrote on the X platform.
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, for his part, argued that Mr. Navalny’s work “exposed the corruption of Putin’s oligarchs” and that he had “been killed for it.”
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, writes that “slow or sudden, openly or in hypocrisy, the death of Alexeï Navalny is political”.
“He suffered so much for his beliefs, and his commitment highlights the world’s terrible inability to neutralize the worst dictators. »
With Agence France-Presse