In an interview with VRT Radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De ochtend’, the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Flemish liberal) has said that the Russian Ambassador will be summoned today to provide an explanation for the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Mr De Croo also joined other European leaders in calling for the release of Mr Navalny’s body.
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Russian Ambassador to be summoned to give explanation about Alexei Navalny’s death says Belgian PM
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Mr De Croo told the VRT that “Yesterday we told the Russian Ambassador that he is to be summoned. This will be today”. The Foreign Ministers of France and The Netherlands said on Monday that they had summoned the Russian Ambassador in their respective countries. The Russian Ambassadors in Sweden, Germany, Spain and the Baltic States had already been summoned to provide an explanation for the Russian opposition leader’s death. European countries also want Mr Navalny’s remains to be released.
On Monday the Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib (Francophone liberal) met with Mr Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya who was in Brussels to attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers. During the meeting the Foreign Ministers of several EU countries called for extra sanctions against Russia as a response to the opposition leader’s death.
Mr Navalny died in prison last Friday. Little is known about the precise circumstances of his death. Marijn Trio, a VRT News journalist that follows Russian affairs, says that “An official investigation has been opened, but the Russian version of events is the only one that we will hear”.
Few doubt the Kremlin’s involvement in the opposition leader’s death. World leaders including the US President Joe Biden have already said that the Russian President Vladmir Putin is responsible for Alexei Navalny’s death.