EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Monday pledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be held to account for Alexei Navalny's death after he met the opposition leader and Kremlin foe's widow.
Navalny's death in an Arctic prison last week has shocked Russia's exiled opposition which – along with the West – pointed the finger at the Kremlin.
"We expressed the EU's deepest condolences to Yulia Navalnaya. Vladimir Putin and his regime will be held accountable for the death of Alexei Navalny," Josep Borrell wrote on X.
"As Yulia said, Putin is not Russia. Russia is not Putin. We will continue our support to Russia's civil society and independent media."
Navalnaya addressed foreign ministers from the EU's 27 nations in Brussels after vowing to carry on her husband's fight against Putin's vice-like grip on Russia.
European diplomats said that she reiterated her determination to keep up the struggle and called on the bloc to do more to target Putin's circle – drawing a standing ovation from the room.
"Vladimir Putin killed my husband," Navalnaya said said in a video released Monday, adding that she would work with the Russian people to battle with the Kremlin to create a new Russia.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in his death.
Navalnaya accused the Russian authorities of hiding Navalny's body and of waiting for traces of the Novichok nerve agent to disappear from his body.
Navalny's allies says they know why her husband was killed and would soon reveal the details, including the names of the people involved in his murder.
Russian investigators have not yet established the cause of Alexei Navalny's death and it is unclear how long it will take for official conclusions to be made, his mother was told, Navalny's spokeswoman said on Monday.
‘Sudden death syndrome’
Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, was told on Saturday at the prison colony that he had perished from “sudden death syndrome”, a vague term for different heart conditions that end in death, according to Navalny’s team.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said that his 69-year-old mother, and lawyers were told that the official verification of the cause of death had been extended and that it was unclear how long it would take.
“The cause of death is ‘undetermined’,” Yarmysh said, adding that the Russian authorities were lying and stalling.
His mother and lawyers were not allowed into the morgue on Monday in the Arctic town near the prison colony where the authorities said he dropped dead, Yarmysh said.
“Asked if Alexei’s body was there, the staff did not answer,” said Yarmysh.
The death of Navalny, a former lawyer, robs the disparate Russian opposition of its most charismatic and courageous leader as President Vladimir Putin prepares for an election that will keep him in power until at least 2030.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP)
