Parliament commemorates the life of Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, featuring a plenary address by his wife Yulia Navalnaya. Alexei Navalny, one of Russia’s most well-known anti-corruption activists, an opposition politician, 2021 Sakharov Prize laureate and an ardent critic of President Vladimir Putin, died under mysterious circumstances in a remote penal colony in the Russian Arctic on Friday 16 February, while serving a long prison sentence on trumped-up charges. Speech by Roberta METSOLA, EP President. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

speech

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

Address by Yulia NAVALNAYA: speech by Roberta METSOLA, EP President

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Yulia, dear colleagues. On the 16th of February, we received the tragic news of Sakharov Prize laureate Alexei Navalny, his death. For many in Russia and outside, he represented hope. Hope in better days. Hope in a free Russia. Hope in the future. Hope that courage can overcome. And while his killers sought to cruelly extinguish that hope, they failed. The hope he represented remains as bright as ever. This House and its members condemn his killing in the strongest possible terms. It is a crime that deserves an international and independent investigation. The world is owed justice. While we paid tribute to his memory, I want to express our deepest condolences to you, dear Yulia, to your children, Daria and Zahar, to Alexei's parents, Lyudmila and Anatoly to his family, friends and countless supporters in Russia and across the globe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Alexei Navalny dedicated his life to the fight against corruption and for a democratic Russia. He did not give up when they tried to poison him. He did not give up when he was unjustly imprisoned. He did not give up when his sentence was extended in a sham trial. He did not give up even when confronted with suffering and injustice. And neither must we. Democracy takes bravery. And Alexei understood that. That is why he went back to Russia in 2021. That is why he could not be broken. And that is exactly what made the regime so afraid of him.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, But Alexei's fight and yours, the many brave people who took to the streets of Russia after his death shows yet again the fragility of authoritarianism. I take solace in that fact that if history teaches us anything, it is that the pillars of autocracy in the end always, always crumble under the weight of its own corruption and people's inherent desire to live freely. And when they inevitably do, it will be thanks to what Alexei and your family did. So, dear Yulia, on behalf of the European Parliament, that stands in admiration of your courage. I thank you. And the floor is yours.