Pressed on whether he thought Putin was directly responsible for the death, Luxon said that was his “personal view”.
“We are gravely concerned about an opposition leader imprisoned for standing up for values we believe very strongly in a liberal democracy,” Luxon said.
“When you’re advocating for freedom, for democracy, for freedom of expression... values that we as all Kiwis... stand up believe in, it’s incredibly concerning and that’s why you’ve seen a consistent reaction from the rest of the world that this is unacceptable.”
Christopher Luxon presents his first State of the Nation speech. Photo / Alex Burton
Luxon said he would be discussing the matter further with Foreign Minister Winston Peters in the coming week.
At today’s media stand-up, he added: “Navalny was someone who advocated incredibly strongly for anti-corruption and democracy; those are critical freedoms that he stood up for very well.
“We’re very concerned about that... [and] we’ll be continuing to talk, I imagine, with the Russian ambassador.”
Yesterday, Peters tweeted he was “deeply saddened” by the death of Navalny, who he said had “fought for change in Russia”.
Alexei Navalny fought for change in Russia.
He championed freedom and democracy, and combated corruption.
We are deeply saddened by reports of his untimely death.
