Coming to Brussels

Navalny’s wife invited to foreign ministers’ meeting

The widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison camp, at the Munich Security Conference.(Bild: APA/dpa/Sven Hoppe)

The widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison camp, has been invited to the meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. In Russia, however, more than 150 people have already been sentenced to prison for public expressions of grief since the Kremlin critic's death. 

As EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reported on Platform X on Sunday, the EU foreign ministers wanted to "send a strong signal of support for the freedom fighters in Russia" and honor the memory of 47-year-old Navalny at their meeting.

EU Council President Charles Michel also wants to receive Yulia Navalny. In a much-noticed speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, she called for a fight against President Vladimir Putin's Russian power apparatus.

There was great consternation following Navalny's death. According to Russian authorities, the Kremlin critic (47), who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking around the courtyard of his Siberian prison camp in freezing temperatures and died shortly afterwards.

More than 150 prison sentences for public commemoration of Navalny
Since then, people around the world have been gathering at public memorials for victims of political repression and lighting candles - including in Russia. In St. Petersburg alone, 154 people were sentenced to up to two weeks in prison at the weekend for violating Russia's strict assembly laws.

Thousands call for Navalny's body to be handed over to relatives
Many heads of state and politicians are calling for a complete and swift investigation into Navalny's death, and the Kremlin has been criticized and even accused of "murder". Only US presidential hopeful Donald Trump is holding back from speaking out.

"Traces of the murderers should be covered up"
Pressure is also growing on the Russian authorities to hand over the 47-year-old's body to his relatives. Navalny's supporters accuse the Russian authorities of preventing his body from being handed over in order to cover the tracks of his "murderers". "It wasn't a death, it was murder," declared Navalny's close ally Leonid Volkov. According to an eyewitness, Navalny's body is said to be covered in bruises.