The News
More than 40 countries demanded an independent international investigation into the sudden death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The call was delivered by an EU ambassador at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on behalf of all 27 EU member states, as well as 16 other countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Ukraine.
“We are outraged by the death of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, for which the ultimate responsibility lies with President Putin and the Russian authorities,” the joint statement said. “Russia must allow an independent and transparent international investigation into circumstances of his sudden death.”
Moscow has previously rejected calls for an international probe, denying any involvement in the death of Navalny last month in an Arctic penal colony. He was imprisoned on charges widely believed to have been politically motivated, repeatedly denied medical care, and had spent more than 300 days in solitary isolation.
Navalny’s associates have said that the lawyer-turned-politician was killed as a prisoner swap neared, as the Kremlin believed they could get a better trade at a later date if the 47-year-old was dead.
An official Russian investigation has concluded his death was due to “natural causes,” but his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has accused Putin of murder.
