It has been three days since Russian opponent Alexei Navalny died in prison under unclear conditions. After the British government summoned diplomats from the Russian embassy on Friday evening, the German, Dutch and Swedish governments followed suit on Monday, February 19, summoning the Russian ambassador to their respective countries. According to AFP and the Spanish news agency EFE, citing diplomatic sources, the Spanish government did the same.
According to a press release from the head of Swedish diplomacy, Tobias Billström, Stockholm has also taken the initiative at the European level to examine the possibility of new sanctions against Moscow. A spokeswoman for the federal government had previously denounced “the brutality” with which “the Russian justice system takes action against those who think differently.” Follow our live stream.
The remains will not be returned to his relatives until “14 days” at the earliest. “The investigators told the lawyers and the mother [d’Alexeï Navalny] that they will not return his body, on which a so-called “chemical assessment” will be carried out for 14 days,” announced the opponent's spokeswoman, Kira Iarmych, in a message published on Monday afternoon on the social network. The family of Alexei Navalny, who accuses the Russian authorities of “lies,” believes that “the Kremlin is showing its teeth, denying and playing for time” to “hide its crime.”
His widow was determined to continue the fight. “I will continue his work,” Yulia Navalnaïa said in a video addressed to the Russians. She vowed to continue her husband's fight against Vladimir Putin and called on her supporters to join her. “It is not a shame to do little, it is a shame to do nothing, it is a shame to be frightened.”
Honors were quickly suppressed in Russia. Dozens of Russians continued to lay flowers at a monument in Moscow to remember their opponent Alexei Navalny, despite hundreds of arrests in recent days. In the past three days, nearly 400 people have been arrested across Russia and at least 150 have been sentenced to short prison sentences.