Resolution 2540 (2024)1Provisional version

Alexei Navalny's death and the need to counter Vladimir Putin's totalitarian regime and its war on democracy

Parliamentary Assembly

1. The Parliamentary Assembly pays tribute to the courage and sacrifice of Alexei Navalny, a leadingRussian opposition politician, civil society activist, anti-corruption campaigner and political prisonerpersecuted, and ultimately killed, by the Russian State for his opposition to Vladimir Putin’s regime. TheAssembly expresses its heartfelt condolences to the family, associates and supporters of Mr Navalny.

2. Vladimir Putin has been in power in the Russian Federation as President or Prime Minister withoutinterruption since 2000, and the amendments to the Russian Constitution adopted in July 2020 andrecognised as illegitimate by the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission)and the Assembly allow him to remain in office until 2036. Since coming to power, Vladimir Putin has beenconstructing a regime whose aim is to wage a war against democracy and redraw the European and globalorder established after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Occupation of Transnistria, invasion ofGeorgia in 2008, the war in Ukraine since 2014, the illegal annexation and occupation of territories, thedestruction of freedom of expression inside the Russian Federation, the disinformation war around the world,the persecution and assassination of its political opponents inside and outside the Russian Federation and thecreation of a system of legislation that criminalises political views are just a few but not all of the features ofVladimir Putin’s regime. The unlawful imprisonment and, as a result, the death of Alexei Navalny is acontinuation of the policy of Vladimir Putin's regime and its war against democracy.

3. On 16 February 2024, Mr Navalny died in a remote Siberian maximum security prison camp, FKU IK-3,where he was serving a manifestly arbitrary prison sentence. The official cause of his death was “suddendeath syndrome”. Mr Navalny’s family was prevented from gaining rapid and timely access to his body orhaving an independent autopsy carried out. Allegations emerged that Mr Navalny had been ill-treated byprison staff the day before his death. Three days after Mr Navalny’s death, the deputy director of the Russianprison service, Valery Boyarinev, was promoted to the rank of colonel general. Several days later, RomanVidyukov, the chief investigator in cases against Mr Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation, waspromoted to deputy head of the State Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. On 18 March 2022,Vladimir Putin claimed that he had agreed to swap the opposition leader in a prisoner exchange days beforehe died – a claim that Mr Navalny’s family strongly rejects.

4. During the three years of his unlawful imprisonment, imposed in blatant disregard of the RussianFederation’s obligations under Articles 3, 5, 6, 7, 18, 34 and 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights(ETS No. 5), under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and under the Convention againstTorture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Mr Navalny was subjected tosystemic torture and other forms of ill-treatment, such as the denial of sleep, repeated placement in isolationcell in inhuman and degrading conditions, and lack of access to proper medical care.

1. Assembly debate on 17 April 2024 (11th sitting) (see Doc. 15966, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs andHuman Rights, rapporteur: Mr Emanuelis Zingeris). Text adopted by the Assembly on 17 April 2024 (11th sitting).

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