‘Let us be clear, Russia is responsible’: world leaders react to Navalny’s death

World leaders, senior western officials and Russian opposition figures have praised the courage of the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, condemning his death and placing responsibility for it firmly on Vladimir Putin and his regime.

“Let us be clear, Russia is responsible,” the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, said at the annual Munich Security Conference where many leaders were gathered to bolster international unity against Russia’s two-year war on Ukraine.

Harris expressed scepticism of Russia’s official explanation that Nalvany, 47, had died after a fall at the Arctic penal colony where he was being held, adding that if the death was confirmed it would be “a further sign of Putin’s brutality”.

Ukraine’s president was equally blunt. “It’s obvious he was killed by Putin,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. “Putin doesn’t care who dies, only for him to hold his position. And that is why he should not keep anything.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on X that in Russia today, “free spirits are sent to the gulag, where they are condemned to death”. He saluted Navalny’s “memory, commitment and courage” and sent his condolences to his family.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he had met Navalny in Berlin when the anti-corruption campaigner was recovering from a poisoning attack and discussed with him there “the great courage it takes to return” to his country.

“He has probably now paid for this courage with his life,” Scholz said, adding that Navalny “stood up for democracy and freedom in Russia” and his death showed “what kind of regime is in power in Moscow”.

Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said Navalny’s death was “terrible news”, adding that Navalny “demonstrated incredible courage throughout his life”. The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, added: “We should hold Putin accountable for this.”

Some Russians took to social media to express their anger and shock.

Many supporters posted a clip of Navalny before his return to Russia in 2021, in which he tells Russians “not to give up” when asked what he would say if he were ever killed.

Impromptu protests and vigils have been announced by pro-democracy Russian organisations across cities in Europe and the US.

In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a crowd was seen holding candles or their mobile phone torches and shouting: “Navalny, Navalny!”

Footage on social media also showed people laying flowers next to a spontaneous memorial for Navalny in the Russian city of Kazan.

Navalny, 47, was serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges in a remote penal colony above the

Artic Circle. He had been behind bars since returning from Germany in January 2021 on various charges that he rejected as politically motivated.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was “deeply disturbed and saddened by news of the death of Alexei Navalny”, adding that the Russian president “fears nothing more than dissent from his own people”.

Von der Leyen added that the news was “a grim reminder of what Putin and his regime are all about. Let us unite in our fight to safeguard the freedom and safety of those who dare to stand up against autocracy.”

The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said Navalny “fought for the values of freedom and democracy. For his ideals, he made the ultimate sacrifice. The EU holds the Russian regime solely responsible for this tragic death.”

Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by the death. “We need to establish all the facts, and Russia needs to answer all the serious questions about the circumstances of his death,” he said.

Also speaking in Munich, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said his thoughts were first for Navalny’s wife and family. Beyond that, Navalny’s “death in a Russian prison … underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built”.

Blinken added: “Russia is responsible for this. We’ll be talking to the many other countries concerned about Alexei Navalny.” His words were echoed by the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in an interview with the broadcaster NPR.

“If it’s confirmed, it is a terrible tragedy,” Sullivan said. “And given the Russian government’s long and sordid history of doing harm to its opponents, it raises real and obvious questions about what happened here.”

Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin”, Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said in a post on X. “That’s a fact, and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime.”

Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said Russia “and all those responsible” must be held accountable. “Navalny’s death is yet another dark reminder of the rogue regime we’re dealing with,” Kallas said on X.

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said Russia’s authorities and Putin personally were “responsible for Alexei Navalny no longer being alive” and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, underlined the “unprecedented brutality of the Russian regime”.

Navalny “fought for democratic values and against corruption”, Rutte said, “paying for his struggle with death while being held under the harshest and most inhumane conditions”. He wished “everyone who fought with him for change in Russia much strength”.Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said Navalny’s tragic death “again underscores why we continue to support Ukraine. Russia will not prevail in Ukraine. Our thoughts are with his family and friends and all brave Russian political prisoners.”

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on X that Navalny was, “like no one else, a symbol for a free and democratic Russia. That is precisely the reason he had to die.” The German finance minister, Christian Lindner, said Putin had “tortured him to death”.

France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, said Navalny had “paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression. His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime.”

Russian exiles and opposition figures were damning. “If this is true, then no matter the formal cause, the responsibility for the premature death is Vladimir Putin personally,” said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon.

The former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a leading opposition activist, said Putin had “tried and failed to murder Navalny quickly and secretly with poison, and now he has murdered him slowly and publicly in prison”.Kasparov added: “He was killed for exposing Putin and his mafia as the crooks and thieves they are.”

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report