Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday called the death of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a “tragedy” and said it exposed Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a monster.”
“It is a tragedy,” Trudeau told CBC.
“It really shows the extent to which Putin… will crack down on anyone who is fighting for freedom for the Russian people. And it’s something that has the entire world being reminded of exactly what a monster Putin is,” he said.
Russian authorities said earlier that Navalny, 47, suddenly died in his Arctic prison.
The shock announcement came as Putin is gearing up to extend his two-decade hold on power in a stage-managed presidential election in March.
Navalny, a charismatic lawyer, was widely seen as Russia’s top opposition leader and the only politician able to muster huge crowds and take on Putin, 71.
Speaking to a group of Canadian business leaders, Trudeau praised Navalny’s “extraordinary courage” in standing up “for basic freedoms, for democracy.”
He urged Canadians to “double and triple down” in their resolve to uphold these values and push back against Putin, “particularly in regard to Ukraine,” but also “in a world that is more challenging and more destabilized than we’ve seen in a very, very long time.”
