A groundswell of pressure is being mounted from many countries in Europe on Russia over the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, many of them summoning diplomats in their countries to explain the situation.

Apart from the United Kingdom government, other countries seeking full explanations over the death of the 47-year-old strong opposition leader, serving a 19-year sentence, said to have occurred in a Russian prison include Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Navalny, who created an uproar across the world when he nearly died of poisoning in 2020, was said to have died in a remote prison in the Arctic, on Friday, an incident many Western countries, which accused Kremlin of the poisoning incident, blame on Moscow.

The incident, coming a month ahead of presidential elections, which incumbent Vladimir Putin is favoured to win, has further hit a heavy blow on the opposition politics in the country, as Navalny is seen as rallying point against the Russian strongman.

Advertisement

However, Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian opposition leader, was quoted as vowing on Monday to carry on her husband’s work, saying she would continue to fight for the freedom of Russians and the country, calling on the people to stand with her as the struggle moved into the next stage.

“It is terrible that Alexei Navalny has paid the ultimate price for his fight for a free and democratic Russia,” Hanke Bruins Slot, the Netherlands’ foreign affairs minister, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“This afternoon, I summoned the Russian ambassador to the ministry to demand clarification on his death,” she said late Monday. “We strongly urge Russia to release Navalny’s body to his family and relatives.”

It came with Minister Tobias Billstrom Foreign Minister of Sweden who made the same claim on Monday, saying in a statement he had summoned Russia’s ambassador, and called for the European Union to consider “a new sanctions regime targeting the internal repression in Russia.” 

Earlier before then, Jose Manuel Albares, Foreign Minister of Spain, had said on Friday, that his country was demanding that the circumstances of the death be clarified.

Advertisement

A woman has been shot and killed after police responded to her spontaneous shooting as she entered at church in Houston, Texas, injuring a five-year old child, while many worshippers scampered away in different directions.

Reports say the incident occurred at a celebrity non-denominational church, and one of the largest religious venues in the United States, owned by Pastor Joel Osteen, with the said woman with a child and armed with a long gun releasing shots, quoting Houston police chief Troy Finner as telling reporters.

Off-duty police officers working security at the venue quickly, were said to have shot back and killed her at the church, said to be a converted former sports arena which could seat some 16,800 people, Finner was quoted as saying, adding “a five-year-old kid was hit and is in critical condition at our local hospital.”

“Another man in his 50s who didn’t have anything to do with it, I don’t think is being treated for a gunshot wound to the leg,” he said.

Advertisement

One witnessed was quoted as saying: “When I entered the sanctuary I saw people running and saying: they are shooting, they are shooting, and we could hear gunshots. We tried to open some doors in the hallway but they were locked. Some people went out to get to their cars, but others like me did not know where to go.

“A church volunteer hid them in the bathroom, piling furniture up against the doors and warning them not to move. There were children on the third and fourth floors, the parents were worried about the children. We put things in God’s hands.”

Despite immediate apologies she tendered over the matter, the United Kingdom has suspended British-Nigerian minister MP Kate Osamor for including Israel in the list of countries committing genocide following the country’s activities in the Gaza strip.

In the remark she made on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, Osamor, had added Gaza to the list of ‘recent genocides,’ in her statement via a weekly newsletter, where she posted a photo of herself signing the Holocaust Education Trust’s commemoration book in Westminster.

The outing, which was followed with a post on her X, where she wrote: “Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza,” had caused outrage.

Osamor, however, quickly beat a retreat, by later posting an apology on social media on Friday night, through the same X, where she wrote ‘Holocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the genocides that have occurred since. I apologise for any offence caused by my reference to the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza as part of that period of remembrance.”

Advertisement

The Board of Deputies, the Jewish Labour Movement, and the Holocaust Educational Trust reacted to her controversial remarks, while MailOnline, quoted a Labour source as confirming on Sunday evening that the Chief Whip suspended Osamor from the Parliamentary Labour Party pending an investigation.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism, was also quoted as saying: ‘The International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the Labour Party, lists comparing Israel to Nazis as an example of antisemitism. That is what Kate Osamor effectively did.

“The Labour Party has acted correctly in taking swift action against Ms Osamor and we will be following the matter with interest. There are some who wish to drag the Party backwards to darker days when views like those expressed by Ms Osamor were common, and they must fail.’

A Jewish Labour Movement spokesperson added, “This is wholly inappropriate. This week we have been commemorating the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust – and those who perished in subsequent genocides, as listed by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Unilaterally co-opting the war in Gaza, despite the horrific suffering there, on to that list is wrong and offensive.”

Advertisement