Cameron warns of ‘consequences’ following Alexei Navalny’s death as Russia accused of 'hiding' his body

Protests and gatherings took place around the world after news emerged of the death of the jailed Russian opposition leader
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There will be “consequences” for the death of Alexei Navalny, Lord David Cameron has said, as Russia is accused of “hiding” the opposition leader’s body.

Navalny's mother has been unable to recover his body following his death in an Arctic jail, according to the politician’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.

Lyudmila Navalnaya was reportedly told by Russian officials her son’s body would only be handed over after it had been examined.

The death has sparked protests and gatherings around the world, with the Foreign Secretary telling broadcasters “there should be consequences”.

Together with members of Navalny's legal team, Lyudmila travelled to the town of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets region, around 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow, where Navalny felt unwell after a walk and fell unconscious.

Prison employees told Navalny's mother on Saturday that they did not have her son's body. 

They said it had been taken to the nearby city of Salekhard, a little over an hour's drive away, as part of a probe into his death.

When Lyudmila arrived in the town with one of Navalny's lawyers they found that the morgue was closed.

When the lawyer called the morgue, they were told that the politician's body was not there either.

Lyudmila was then told that her son’s cause of death had not been established and officials said the politician's relatives would not receive his body until they had completed additional examinations.

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on X: “It's obvious that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body."

She also said that Navalny's team "demand that Alexei Navalny's body be handed over to his family immediately."

Kira Yarmysh confirmed Navalny’s death on Saturday claiming he was “murdered” and died at 2.17pm local time on February 16.

G7 foreign ministers on Saturday called on Russia to "fully clarify" how the jailed Russian opposition leader died, as protests and gatherings took place around the world in the wake of his death.

In London, the Foreign Office summoned diplomats at the Russian Embassy and called for Navalny's death to be "investigated fully and transparently".

Britain has joined other western countries in condemning the Kremlin after Russia’s federal prison service said in a statement that the 47-year-old politician and anti-corruption campaigner had died.

According to the agency, he became unwell after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness.

An ambulance arrived but he died despite attempts to resuscitate him, it said.

“There should be consequences,” the Foreign Secretary told broadcasters at the Munich Security Conference.

“When appalling human rights outrages like this take place, what we do is we look at whether there are individual people that are responsible and whether there are individual measures and actions we can take.

“We don’t announce them in advance, so I can’t say anymore than that.

“But that is what we will be looking at.

“Of course we have already summoned the ambassador and made clear our views about this dreadful event and the way this person was treated.”

He said he would be meeting with G7 foreign ministers at the German gathering: “I am clear that we will be taking action and I would urge others do to the same.”

Critics of Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine is now approaching its second anniversary, said the Russian leader had wanted to send a message both to activists inside Russia but also to the West.

His death comes less than a month before an election that will give Putin another six years in power.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended the same conference on Saturday alongside other world leaders, told those attending: “Putin kills whoever he wants.

“After the murder of Alexei Navalny, it’s absurd to perceive Putin as a supposedly legitimate head of a Russian state and he is a thug who maintains power through corruption and violence.

“He has just yesterday he tried to send us all a clear message as the Munich Security Conference opened, Putin murdered another opposition leader.”

Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.

He was later convicted three times, saying each case was politically motivated and received a sentence of 19 years for extremism.

After the last verdict, Navalny said he understood he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime”.

Hours after Navalny’s death was reported, his widow Yulia Navalnaya made an appearance in Munich.

“I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband,” she said.

US President Joe Biden said Washington does not know exactly what happened, “but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did”.

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