Spain is urging Russia to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of Alexei Navalny, a Russian political prisoner held in Siberia.
“Deeply shocked by the death of Alexei Navalny,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on the social platform X. “We demand clarity about the circumstances of his passing, which occurred during his unjust detention for political reasons. Our condolences go to his family, and support to those who work for freedom.”
“Shocked by the news of Navalny’s death in prison, unjustly imprisoned by the Putin regime for his defense of human rights and democracy,” wrote President Pedro Sánchez in a message posted in English and Spanish on X. The head of government extended his condolences to Navalny’s family and friends and expressed solidarity with all who in Russia defend democratic values and pay a high price for them.
These were the first responses from Spain to the announcement of Navalny’s death, who had been sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges of “extremism.” He was detained in 2021 after returning to Russia despite a serious poisoning attempt in his past.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug announced the death of the influential opposition figure on Friday. “Navalny began to feel unwell during a walk and almost immediately fainted,” authorities reported, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
“I don’t know if the Kremlin killed him; it wouldn’t be logical given that elections are in March and that could spark protests,” explains Eleonora Tafuro to this newspaper, a senior researcher at the ISPI think tank in Milan. “But in any case, it was an assassination at a snail’s pace.”
“I don’t think anything changes in the Russian political game, because he was already sidelined from real politics,” notes Juanjo Prego, an independent Russia expert. “Since he was imprisoned in the Arctic, what he said interested only the circle of ‘navalnists’. The opposition has not been able to coordinate around another candidate.”
EU Condemnation
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said on Friday she was “horrified” by the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison and stated that “Russia has taken away his freedom and his life, but not his dignity.”
“The world has lost a fighter whose courage will echo for generations. I am horrified by the death of the Sakharov Prize winner Alexei Navalny. Russia has taken his freedom and his life, but not his dignity. His struggle for democracy remains alive. Our thoughts are with his wife and children,” Metsola wrote in a post on X.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died today suddenly in the Arctic prison where he had been held since December, according to Russia’s penitentiary services.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, held Moscow responsible for the dissident’s death, which in 2021 earned him the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought while he was imprisoned in a Russian jail on a charge of violating the terms of his probation.
Navalny’s probation violation involved failing to report to authorities while he recovered in Germany from a poisoning attempt in August 2020 attributed to the Kremlin.
In December, Navalny was moved from a prison in the Vladimir region, not far from Moscow, to a facility in the Arctic circle near the Ural Mountains, about 2,000 kilometers from the capital.