Russian Ambassador Mitrofanova was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, her deputy went instead

On 23 February, the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova, was invited for a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry said.

Valentin Solodkin, the deputy head of mission, attended the meeting. A demarche was made before him to express Bulgaria's indignation at the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on 16 February 2024 in the penal colony in Siberia where he was unjustly sent.

The Bulgarian side called on the authorities in Moscow to immediately conduct as transparent, thorough and objective investigation as possible, including with the involvement of an independent international commission, and to clarify all the circumstances surrounding Navalny's death. It was hoped that those responsible would be brought to justice as soon as possible. An appeal was made for A. Navalny's body to be immediately handed over to the family, who would be free to organise a funeral ceremony.

For its part, the Russian embassy wrote that the Bulgarian side had shared "some tendentious assessments of the political situation in Russia in the form of already familiar Western clichés".

"For our part, we stressed that the situation surrounding Alexei Navalny is an exclusively internal matter of Russia and any attempts to put pressure on the country's authorities are nothing more than interference in internal affairs.

We stressed that before making statements on this issue, it is necessary to wait for the results of the investigation, which is being carried out by the competent authorities in full compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation," the Russian Embassy said.

The Foreign Ministry added that Bulgaria calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all other political prisoners, including Yuri Dmitriev, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, Alexei Gorinov, Lilia Chanisheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva, Alexandra Skochilenko and Ivan Safronov, as well as human rights defenders, journalists and anti-war activists arbitrarily detained for the peaceful exercise of their human rights and opposition to the Russian-led aggression against Ukraine. Concern has been expressed about their conditions of detention and the Russian authorities have been reminded that the prohibition of torture is absolute under international law.