Exiled Russian opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov on Friday blamed President Vladimir Putin for the "murder" of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
"Alexei's death is a murder. Organised by Putin," Gudkov said on social media. "Even if Alexei died of "natural" causes, they were caused by his poisoning and further torture in prison."
Poland's top diplomat on Friday said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "responsible" for the death of Alexei Navalny, a jailed Kremlin critic and opposition leader.
"He was convicted in a trial on false charges, with false evidence. He was put in prison, where he lived in terrible conditions. Vladimir Putin is responsible for all this," Radoslaw Sikorski said in a statement to the state news agency.
Bill Browder, a British-American businessman who was once among the biggest foreign investors in Russia before becoming a fierce regime critic, on Friday blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Alexei Navalny's death.
"Let's make no mistake, Putin assassinated Navalny," Browder said on X, formerly Twitter, shortly after news of the Russian opposition figure's death sent shockwaves around the world.
"He did so because Navalny was brave enough to stand up to Putin. He did so because Navalny offered the Russian people an alternative to kleptocracy and repression," Browder added.
"This is a tragic day for Navalny's family but also for Russia."
Browder invested millions in Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s through his company Hermitage Capital Management, before falling foul of Putin's regime.
He began a campaign to penalise Russians accused of rights violations after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Russian jail in 2009.
"Magnitsky Acts" were subsequently agreed by legislatures in Britain, Canada, the United States and the three Baltic states.
IOL