BERLIN, Germany: A number of European Union governments on Monday summoned Russian diplomats following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison.
Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands were among those saying they have had summoned diplomats from Russian embassies. London had done the same on Friday evening.
Navalny’s death in a remote Arctic prison, where the 47-year-old was serving a 19-year sentence after surviving a poisoning in 2020 blamed on the Kremlin, was announced on Friday.
Western countries unanimously blamed Russian authorities for his death, three years after his conviction, depriving the opposition of its most prominent figure a month before a presidential election expected to strengthen Vladimir Putin’s entrenched power.
“It is terrible that Alexei Navalny has paid the ultimate price for his fight for a free and democratic Russia,” the Netherlands’ foreign affairs minister, Hanke Bruins Slot, posted on X.
Late Monday she said, “This afternoon, I summoned the Russian ambassador to the ministry to demand clarification on his death,” adding “We strongly urge Russia to release Navalny’s body to his family and relatives.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said in a statement earlier Monday that he had summoned the Russian ambassador and called on the European Union to consider “a new regime of sanctions aimed at internal repression in Russia.”
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Friday that Madrid “demands clarification of the circumstances” of the death.
