PRESS RELEASE : UK calls for full and independent investigation of Alexei Navalny’s death: UK statement to the OSCE [February 2024]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 29 February 2024.

Ambassador Neil Holland condemns repression in Russia and calls for a full and independent investigation of Alexei Navalny’s death.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Alexei Navalny was a fierce advocate for Russian democracy and a brave campaigner against corruption who demonstrated incredible courage throughout his life.

Russian Federal Security Service operatives poisoned him with Novichok in 2020. He was imprisoned for peaceful political activities and was sent to an Arctic penal colony. The conditions of his detention amounted to torture and ill-treatment. No-one should doubt the oppressive nature of the Russian system he faced.

His death is a tragedy, for his wife and family as well as for the people of Russia. His death must be investigated fully and transparently. Those in the Russian regime responsible for his death must be held to account.

To that end, the UK has sanctioned six individuals responsible for running the prison where Navalny was killed. The UK was the first country to impose such sanctions and had already designated 14 individuals following Mr Navalny’s poisoning in 2020. We have been clear in expressing our outrage at his death and summoned the Russian Ambassador on the day of Navalny’s death.

As Minister Trevelyan said at the Reinforced Permanent Council meeting last Friday, Mr Navalny’s death shows how the Russian regime silences those who speak out, acting in complete defiance of the OSCE principles and commitments to which Russia itself has subscribed, as well as Russia’s wider international obligations.

Alexei Navalny’s death is a tragic reminder of the harsh conditions facing political prisoners within Russia. Madam Chair, in this forum we have regularly raised the cases of others imprisoned on political grounds, including Vladimir Kara-Murza.

And just this week Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Nobel Prize winning organisation Memorial, was sentenced to two and half years in prison for speaking out against Putin’s war. This is a further indictment of Russia’s appalling human rights record. We will continue to call for their immediate release.

Russia’s internal repression enables external aggression, as we have seen all too clearly in Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine.

Madam Chair,

When challenged to account for Mr Navalny’s death, Russian diplomats and officials have tried to claim that international scrutiny represents illegitimate interference in Russian internal affairs.

In this Council, I say plainly, we disagree. It is a founding OSCE principle that participating States hold one another to account for implementation of shared commitments including freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention, the right to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

In the Astana Commemorative Declaration, Heads of State and Government agreed that one State’s implementation of OSCE commitments is a matter of: “immediate and legitimate concern to all participating States”.

That means Mr Navalny’s death is a matter of immediate and legitimate concern to the countries represented in this room.

The UK will stand up for human rights and security in our region and globally. And we will continue to back the OSCE and its institutions in pursuit of them.

Thank you.