The Spanish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Madrid, Yuri Klimenko, this Monday, following the death in prison of the Russian opponent Alexi Navalny last Friday, according to diplomatic sources.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, said today that Navalny’s death is “totally unjustified and should never have occurred”, and assured that the “ultimate person responsible is evidently the one who unjustly put him in prison for political reasons.” Today, Germany and Sweden have also summoned their respective Russian ambassadors.
Albares met today in Brussels with Navalni’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, along with the rest of the foreign ministers of the European Union, and asked that Russia clarify the causes of death as soon as possible “in a credible manner.”
“I have expressed my support for Yulia Navalnaya, just as I express it to so many defenders of democracy and freedoms. The Government of Spain always, in all parts of the world, is on the side of those who defend democracy, freedom and human rights,” the minister said in a press conference at the end of the meeting of community ministers.
To honor the memory of the opponent, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, proposed today that the European human rights sanctions regime be named after Alexei Navalni.
The call by the Russian ambassador in Madrid also coincides with the confirmation that the Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who deserted last August to surrender to the Ukrainian Army with the helicopter he was piloting, has been found dead in Spain, according to intelligence sources. Ukrainian military cited by the Kyiv Post.
