GENEVA – The United Nations human rights expert on Russia said on March 11 that the death of opposition politician Alexei Navalny was Moscow’s responsibility, as he was either killed in prison or died because of detention conditions that amounted to torture.

The Russian authorities say Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died on Feb 16 in an Arctic prison of natural causes.

Navalny’s wife, Mrs Yulia Navalnaya, has accused Mr Putin of having him killed, an accusation the Kremlin rejects.

“So the Russian government is responsible, one way or another, for his death,” human rights expert Mariana Katzarova told Reuters on the sidelines of an event on Russian political prisoners at the UN in Geneva.

She cited long periods of solitary confinement, which she said amounted to about 300 days, which could have caused “a slow death over several years”.

Ms Katzarova, who was appointed special rapporteur on human rights in Russia in 2023 and has not yet been granted access to the country, also said other detainees in Russia could suffer the same fate as Navalny.

She was “very worried” about opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza.

“Ever since the death of Alexei Navalny, there is no day passing without asking myself, who is the next Navalny?” she said. “And there will be a next Navalny, for sure, with this level of repression.”

Ms Katzarova, a Bulgarian former investigator for Amnesty International, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the UN to report on specific themes or crises, though she is the only one reporting on one of the five states with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Civil society groups say that around 600 to 1,000 political prisoners are being detained in Russia for voicing opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine or refusing to fight in it.

Moscow rejects criticism of its domestic rights record.

In her address at the UN meeting earlier, where Nobel Prize-winning Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov also spoke, Ms Katzarova called for more pressure on Moscow to release political detainees and investigate Navalny’s death.

“We cannot afford to just be insulted by the human rights situation in Russia,” she told the packed room of diplomats. “It’s up to you to take steps, real steps, for the protection of these political prisoners.” REUTERS