His spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch announced this on Saturday on X (formerly Twitter). Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, traveled to the prison camp in northern Russia and received the news of his death there. However, there was no trace of the Russian opposition politician’s body on Saturday. Jarmysch demanded that the body be handed over to the relatives immediately.
According to officials, the 47-year-old’s death is said to have occurred on Friday at 2:17 p.m. local time (10:17 a.m. CET). The Russian penal system had previously informed about Navalny’s death, who had been imprisoned since 2021.
The mother was initially told by a prison camp employee that Navalny’s body was in the morgue in the city of Salekhard, 50 km from the prison camp. However, when she went to identify her son, the building was closed. She and a lawyer who had traveled with her were told by telephone that the body was not in the morgue.
“It’s obvious they’re lying”
Another lawyer for Navalny was told that the cause of death was not yet known and that another histological examination had been carried out, the results of which were expected next week, Yarmysch wrote. “It’s obvious they’re lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body.” The lawyers were only told that the investigations had revealed “nothing criminal.” “They lie all the time and lead us around in circles.”
According to Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking in the prison camp in freezing temperatures. According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful. Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder. The prominent anti-corruption campaigner’s employees also assumed that Navalny was deliberately killed.
As a globally recognized Russian opposition leader, Navalny embodied the hope for a future after the dictatorship, wrote expert Alexander Baunow for the Carnegie think tank on Saturday. Even in the prison camp, the politician remained a nuisance for the Kremlin. “But the effort itself to get rid of such an irritating figure also shows that the regime is not as confident in itself and its future as it would like to appear.”
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP), however, refused to criticize Moscow’s reactions to Navalny’s death. Those who were most upset yesterday should behave the calmest, Schallenberg said on Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “Russian lamentation has no place here,” he said of the Russian embassy’s protest against a comment by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen.
Picture gallery: Worldwide horror over the death of Alexei Navalny
(Photo: KAREN MINASYAN (AFP)) Bild 1/20
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In his immediate reaction to The Russian embassy in Vienna countered with a protest note to the Foreign Office. Schallenberg said that he does not participate in conspiracy theories. At the same time, he made it clear: “We know that there was a poison attack on him (Nawalny, note), that he was put in the GULAG (…), we know which regime tried to destroy his health.” Unlike many international politicians, Schallenberg avoided direct blame on Moscow after Navalny’s death, but called for a full investigation into the circumstances of his death.
In view of the “unacceptable” protest note from the Russian embassy, NEOS foreign policy spokesman Helmut Brandstätter reiterated the demand for Schallenberg to immediately summon the Russian ambassador to the foreign office. In such a conversation, Schallenberg could “strongly convey his demand for an independent investigation into the events,” Brandstätter said in a broadcast on Saturday.
G7 foreign ministers demand clarification
The G7 foreign ministers demanded that Russia fully clarify the circumstances of Navalny’s death. After a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Italian leader Antonio Tajani said ministers had expressed outrage over Navalny’s death in custody. The opposition politician was wrongly convicted because of legitimate political activities and his fight against corruption. The ministers called on the Russian authorities to “fully clarify the circumstances of his death.” In addition, the G7 foreign ministers demanded that Russia stop the “unacceptable persecution” of political dissidents as well as the systematic suppression of freedom of expression and the unreasonable restrictions on civil rights.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko blames Putin for Navalny’s death and does not consider the timing immediately before the Munich Security Conference to be a coincidence. As the president who makes all decisions in Russia, Putin bears responsibility for Navalny’s death, Klitschko told the German Press Agency on the sidelines of the security conference. This shows once again the true face of Russian politics. “This is a dictatorship,” said Klitschko. Anyone who disagrees with Putin will be murdered or put in prison.
Demonstrations in front of embassies
In numerous European cities, including Vienna, people demonstrated in front of the respective Russian embassies and called Kremlin boss Putin a murderer. In Vienna, members of the Russian community have been remembering Navalny since Friday with an improvised memorial in front of the Russian Embassy on Reisnerstrasse in Wien-Landstrasse. At times, up to 20 people were present at the same time, some of whom also put up posters with very expressive criticism of Kremlin boss Putin and his regime on a construction fence.
Despite arrests and pressure from the authorities, public expressions of condolence for Navalny continued in Russia. According to reports from human rights activists, there were hundreds of arrests across the country. The Internet portal ovd.info wrote on Saturday afternoon that at least 359 Navalny supporters had been arrested in 32 cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. The portal also listed the names of those arrested. In many places, despite evictions and arrests, fresh flowers continued to be laid, candles were lit and pictures were put up in memory of Navalny.
