European Parliament condemns murder of Alexey Navalny and holds Putin responsible

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution strongly condemning the murder of Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny two weeks ago and blaming the Russian state for his death.

The resolution was supported by 506 members of the European Parliament (MEPs), with just nine MEPs voting against it, and 32 abstentions.

The resolution holds the Russian state and Russian President Vladimir Putin criminally and politically responsible for Navalny’s death, stressing that it was not “an isolated incident, but the culmination of the Kremlin regime’s pattern of violence”.

Perhaps the European Parliament’s most vehement condemnation of Putin’s Russia to date, the resolution noted that the country’s institutions were infected with “rampant corruption”, that democratic rights were “non-existent in practice” and condemned the use of “rigged elections to provide a semblance of democracy”.

The resolution also called on the UN Human Rights Council to conduct an immediate investigation into the imprisonment, torture, and murder of opposition politicians and demanded the immediate release of all political prisoners in Russia, including Vladimir Kara-Muza, who was recently moved into a harsher prison, and all those who were detained for paying tribute to Navalny.

The European Parliament paid its respect to Navalny and his “dream of a beautiful Russia” and expressed its condolences to Navalny’s family, offering support to both Yulia Navalnaya in her desire to continue her husband’s work, and to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.