PARIS, February 29. /TASS/. Members of the European Parliament have adopted a resolution calling for an "independent" international investigation into the circumstances of Alexey Navalny's death, according to a broadcast on the parliament’s website.

The document, approved with the support of 509 deputies and the opposition of nine, calls for sanctions not only against those involved in Navalny's death, but also against all those who participated in his trial and conviction and were responsible for the conditions of his imprisonment. The sanctions are proposed to be coordinated with the US, which has already announced its list of measures.

At the same time, the deputies place "criminal and political responsibility" for Navalny's death on Russia's top leadership and consider it "fair to raise the question of the legitimacy" of the Russian president. They call on the European Commission to develop a proactive, long-term strategic policy towards Russia that effectively responds to "the realities of today's EU-Russia relations."

Resolutions of the European Parliament have no legal force and are of a recommendatory nature, but are widely used in the EU to promote and disseminate certain political positions.

The Federal Penitentiary Service’s Directorate for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region said on February 16 that Navalny had died in a penal colony. According to the penitentiary authority, Navalny felt sick after a walk and fainted. Medics arrived immediately but their more than 30-minute resuscitation efforts failed. Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed the West’s statements concerning Navalny’s death as rabid and totally inadmissible, bearing in mind that there is no official information about the cause of his death.