Alexander Makogonov, the spokesman for the Russian Embassy in France, was a guest of LCI this Tuesday evening. He was questioned in detail about the death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opponent who died on Friday. – The speaker called on the West to leave this. internal” Russian files into the hands of Russian investigators.
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Russian opponent Alexei Navalny died in prison
He says he came to “bring the church back to the center of the village.” The spokesman of the Russian Embassy in France, Alexander Makogonov, was a guest at LCI this Tuesday, February 20th. When asked in detail about the death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opponent who died last Friday, the spokesman initially regretted the process initiated in Moscow in this case. Before calling on Western countries to leave the investigation to the Russian authorities.
Moscow says it has 'nothing to hide'
In view of the video of the opponent's mother calling on Vladimir Putin to hand over her son's body to her “immediately”, the spokesman for the Moscow embassy remains unmoved. While he describes this mother's feelings as “natural and very understandable,” he defends the decision of the Russian authorities. “The investigation into the circumstances of his death is ongoing.” “Medical and judicial reports are available, his body is in the hands of specialists,” he explained, but refused to specify the location of the remains, which is not an issue for him seems to be.
However, this is not the only request that the speaker brushed aside. As France calls for an independent investigation into the death of Alexei Navalny in his penal colony in the Arctic, the embassy spokesman responds that it is “Russia's internal affairs.” “Therefore, this investigation is the responsibility of the judicial services and the Russian authorities,” he argued in the LCI set. “We have nothing to hide, but we can conduct this investigation on our own.”
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However, using a mirror argument, Alexander Makogonov continued to call for the initiation of independent investigations, referring in particular to “the events in Boutcha” in Ukraine. As a reminder, on May 6, 2022, Amnesty International published the results of its investigation, which concluded that Russian forces were responsible for the massacre of 637 Ukrainians. On December 22, a further investigation even revealed that the unit responsible for the massacres was the 234th Moscow Paratrooper Regiment. On the contrary, none of the different versions of this massacre put forward by Moscow have been supported by evidence.
When Paris calls for an independent investigation into Navalny, the main aim is to find out whether there is a “criminal element,” a route excluded from the official investigation. As she awaits these results, Alexei Navalny's widow is undoubtedly placing responsibility for this death on the Russian president. “Putin killed my husband,” said Julia Nawalnaïa a few hours after the death was announced in Munich.
Another accusation that the spokesman for the Russian embassy in Paris rejects. “Today it is very fashionable to blame Russia, and especially President Vladimir Putin, for all the evils and crimes in the world,” reacted Alexander Makogonov on our set. “It wasn’t the president who wanted to kill Navalny personally,” he then joked, before half-heartedly accusing Yulia Navalnaïa of being involved in that death. “If she wanted him with her, maybe she should have kept him,” he added, referring to her husband's return to Moscow after his hospitalization in Germany.
PORTRAIT – Who is Ioulia Navalnaïa, the widow of Alexeï Navalny? Source: TF1 Info
Asked at LCI about the allegations of this death, the ambassador reiterated that “the investigation is still ongoing” and that it is “too early to indict anyone, especially President Putin.” “He is perhaps the last person on the planet who cares about Navalny’s death,” he concluded. “He was a prisoner like any other.” A prisoner perhaps “like the others,” but a dead man whose memory cannot be honored in Russia. The family still doesn't have a body to bury. And this weekend, Russian justice sentenced at least 150 people arrested during tributes to Alexei Navalny to prison terms.
FS