NATO’s Stoltenberg: Russia must answer questions about death of jailed Putin critic

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “saddened and concerned” about the death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny and called on the Kremlin to conduct a full investigation into what happened.

Speaking before the Munich Security Conference on Friday, the NATO chief called Mr. Navalny “a strong voice for freedom (and) for democracy” and said the Russian government “has serious questions to answer.”

“It is important to have all the facts established (but) what we have seen is that Russia has become a more and more authoritarian power,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “They have used oppression against the opposition for many years.”

Long one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile and vocal critics, Mr. Navalry, 47, died in the maximum-security “Polar Wolf” penal colony in Yamalo-Nenets, located about 25 miles above the Arctic Circle. 

The official Russian RT news network said Mr. Navalny lost consciousness after a walk and efforts to resuscitate him failed. RT said he had a blood clot at the time of death. 

He was the latest in a string of high-profile critics of Mr. Putin who died after running afoul of the Kremlin. Others on the list include Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group mercenary army leader and former close confidant of the Russian leader until he led an aborted rebellion in June 2023. He and nine other people were killed two months later when his jet crashed north of Moscow under circumstances that several analysts have said were suspicious.

Sergei Yushenkov, a leader of the anti-Kremlin “Liberal Russia” party, was shot to death in front of his home in Moscow in April 2003. Anna Politkovskaya, one of her country’s most prominent journalists, covered the fighting in Chechnya and reported on documented abuses committed by Russian forces. She was fatally shot in an execution-style killing in her apartment in October 2006.

Boris Nemtsov was a reform-minded deputy prime minister who became one of Mr. Putin’s most ardent opponents and opposed Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014. In Feb. 2015, he was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin in what reports at the time said was a “gangland-style” killing.

Russian government officials are pushing back against concerns from the West that Mr. Navalny’s death was suspicious.

“The immediate reaction of NATO leaders to Navalny’s death in the form of direct accusations against Russia is self-exposing,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram. “There is no forensic examination yet, but the West’s conclusions are already ready.”

Mr. Stoltenberg wouldn’t speculate if the Russian critic’s death could be linked to the upcoming Russian presidential election.

“We need to establish all the facts, and Russia needs to answer all the questions — and there are many questions — about the cause of his death,” he said. “My main message today is to express my condolences. My thoughts are with his loved ones and his family.”