United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed shock at the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
He was in a Russian penal colony where he was serving a 30-year sentence in relation to “extremism” charges.
Guterres has echoed the UN Human Rights Office’s statement urging Russian authorities to ensure that a credible investigation into Navalny’s death is carried out.
Navalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by documenting and speaking publicly about what he said was the vast corruption and opulence among the “crooks and thieves” running Russia.
United States President Joe Biden also weighed in holding President Vladimir Putin responsible for the death.
Biden says, “Russian authorities are going to tell their own story. But make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled.”
He adds: Not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world. Putin does not only target the citizens of other countries as we’ve seen in what’s going on in Ukraine right now, but he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people. And as people across Russia and around the world are mourning Navalny today because he was so many things that Putin was not.”
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