As of: February 16, 2024, 2:14 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
An activist stands in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin with a poster of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and protests.
© Paul Zinken/dpa
Russia's leading opposition politician is dead. Alexei Navalny died in a prison camp.
Zelenskyj assumes that Navalny was killed.
The NATO Secretary General demands answers from Moscow.
Berlin - Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reacted with horror to reports about the death of leading Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison.
“But we now know exactly what kind of regime this is,” said the SPD politician in Berlin.
At a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he recalled how he met Navalny in Berlin when he was trying to recover from a poison attack in Germany.
He also talked to Navalny about the great courage it would take to return to the country.
Scholz: “And he has probably now paid for this courage with his life.”
Scholz said that anyone in Russia who expresses criticism and supports democracy must fear for safety and life.
“We are with the family, the wife and the child and all the relatives and friends,” said Scholz.
“And it is something completely terrible, also as a sign of how Russia has changed.
After the hopeful developments that were moving in the direction of democracy, which unfortunately took place a long time ago, this is no longer a democracy.”
Zelensky: Navalny was obviously killed
Zelenskyj assumes that Navalny was killed.
According to the official translation, Zelensky said at a joint press conference with Scholz in Berlin that it was very unfortunate that Navalny died in a Russian prison.
It's obvious to me: he was killed.
Like other thousands who were tortured to death because of this one person.”
Stoltenberg demands clarification
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the government in Moscow to investigate Navalny's death.
“My message is that we have to clarify all the facts and that Russia has to answer all the serious questions about the causes of his death,” said the Norwegian in an initial reaction on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“I am deeply saddened and very concerned.”
Stoltenberg said of Navalny that he was a strong fighter for freedom and democracy.
NATO will continue to support all those who believe in these values.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describes the death of the Russian Kremlin critic as “terrible news”.
“As the fiercest defender of Russian democracy, Alexei Navalny has shown incredible courage throughout his life,” wrote the head of government on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
“My thoughts are with his wife and the Russian people, for whom this is a tremendous tragedy.”
My news
7 mins ago
Alexei Navalny declared dead – Zelensky and Scholz speak together in Berlinlesen
“If you don’t want us as Bavaria …”: Söder threatens to leave the Federal Republic of Germany – and calls for compulsory military service
No GDR conditions: Saxony's Prime Minister Kretschmer gives Robert Habeck a pass
“Are under pressure”: Habeck is making people sit up and take notice when it comes to electric cars
Lavrov on Ukraine war: Peace agreement “certainly impossible” read
Ukraine sinks Russian Crimean warship using Wehrmacht “wolf pack tactics”
EU Council President Charles Michel blamed Navalny's Russia.
“The EU holds the Russian regime solely responsible for this tragic death,” Michel wrote on the X platform. Navalny fought for freedom and democracy.
“He made the ultimate sacrifice for his ideals.”
Michael Roth: Putin “like a mafia godfather”
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, Michael Roth (SPD), wrote on to intimidate.”
Russia is a textbook dictatorship.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach called Navalny a hero on X.
“Through his resistance, he made it clear to the world early on that Putin is a ruthless criminal in office.”
The Vice President of the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, wrote on X: “What a murderous system.
Navalny was Putin's feared opponent. He stood for a Russia in which opinions are free and elections are fair.
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour wrote on X: “His courage lives on in the people who oppose the Russian dictatorship.”
CDU foreign expert Norbert Röttgen described Navalny’s death on X as “horrible and sad”.
Navalny is “one more big man that Putin has on his conscience.”
Dietmar Barsch: “Political murder”
The left-wing politicians Dietmar Bartsch and Martin Schirdewan described Navalny's death as a "political murder".
“His shocking death is attributable to Moscow, which had imprisoned Putin’s harshest critic,” Bartsch wrote on
Disgusting!
RIP.”
Left leader Schirdewan also spoke of a “political murder with announcement” and called for the case to be investigated internationally.
dpa