Speaking to ETV morning show "Terevisioon" Monday, Liik, a senior expert at think tank the European Council on Foreign Relations, said "Perhaps one day the truth will arise from archived documents, but will it by then be believed? If his body is cremated, there will be nothing further to check. We will likely never get full closure on these issues."

Liik said her view is that Navalny's death was caused by Kremlin's actions, and the regime's treatment of him. "One way or another, he was killed. If we are talking about a health problem, then it is still caused by the Kremlin and the treatment he was subjected to," she continued.

An underlying health issue could not be ruled out, Liik noted, given Navalny had in August 2020 fallen ill after being poisoned on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, and had reportedly been subject to violent treatment.

In late 2023 it was established that Navalny had been moved to the IK-3 "special regime" colony in Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in northern Russia.

Navalny's death will not, on the other hand, Liik said, affect Putin's actions. "It certainly won't affect his behavior in terms of the war," she said.

She added that: "Putin's attitude towards Navalny; I can't say anything for sure about that. We like to think that he was afraid of Navalny, but I'm not so sure about that. It is viable that Putin managed to convince himself that Navalny was some kind of Western plot, given he had been to college in the US . A Western agent, hired by the West, to sow confusion in Russia in short."

Another aspect is the Russian populace as a whole, which has become more unpredictable from the regime's perspective, she argued. "In the case of Russia, it can be seen that the mental pressure caused by the war has certainly backed up. From time to time it gets released, with some unexpected actions – for instance support for [Wagner boss Yevgeny] Prigozhin or the anti-Israel protests last October which took place at the Makhachkala Airport in southern Russia.

"The population has become a little unpredictable for the Kremlin. Maybe they are a little afraid of this reaction, but not too much. They have every reason to expect that they will keep the situation under control," Liik said.

People are now coming on to the streets motivated by emotion, she added, though said the demonstrations will not last long. "I fear that these withdrawals will end in the same way as the protests against Navalny's arrest did, or the protests when the war started. They all ended up being cracked down on."

"These are some brave people. The conditions are becoming more and more repressive as time goes on. So to come out, in the knowledge that you will not remain an anonymous flower seell going forward – Moscow will be able to identify them all from facial recognition systems – well, my respect to those people."

Liik also said Russia does not seem to have its next opposition leader lined up who would prove worthy of Navalny.

"What made Navalny strong was this certain charisma he had. He had an unparalleled sense of humor. This was not something that was somehow studied," she said.

"What made him special was that he was able to build up a decent organization, yet inside Russia. His anti-corruption fund for instance: They had regional departments, employing plenty of people. This was a level of organization that no one else had, but I don't see anything like that being recreated in Russia right now," she continued.

Liik said she believes that if Navalny had not returned to Russia, following his recovery in Germany from the Tomsk poisoning, he would have lost out on his prominence in Russian politics.

"I think he knew full well that if he were to remain in Germany, he would become a persona non grata so far as Russian politics goes. We have seen that happen before, with people who have gone into exile outside of Russia, Russian politicians; they tend to talk a lot, but largely hot air."

Liik said she also feels that Navalny will be commemorated as a martyr.

She said: "I think he will retain a flawless now. Had he survived his imprisonment, had he ever made a full return to Russian politics, which could not have been completely out of the question, I think we would have then gotten to see all his weaknesses as a politician. So, perhaps, his memory then is quite complex. But from now on, he will be vividly remembered as a person who wasn't afraid of anything, and saw things through to the very end."

On the other hand, Navalny's death will not impact hugely on Russian politics in the immediate future, Liik said.

"It won't right now. But in the longer-term future perspective, I think it will certainly prove a very good thing for the Russian people themselves to know that such a person had ever been on this earth."

"When Russia sent the tanks into Prague (as the Soviet Union, in 1968 – ed.), a total of seven people in Russia itself went to Red Square to demonstrate against that, and they were all promptly arrested. But when I was living in Russia, as the years passed I came to see how important it was to Russian people that even these seven were present. At least someone went. And now we have Navalny, too."

Defense minister: Russia's authorities are horrendously repressive

Meanwhile Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) appeared on Vikkeraadio show "Vikerhommik" Monday, to comment on the implications.

The Russian authorities in their actions are horrendously repressive, he said.

He said: "Putin is turning the screws. We saw very clearly over the last few days how people who were simply just out and about were 'cleaned' from the streets. And as of today, the initial judgments have been arriving, in which people have been sentenced to up to 14 days in prison. Simply for taking flowers somewhere."

"The message is very simple – don't stick your head above the parapet, don't even attempt to think of anything that goes against the regime."

Pevkur attended the weekend's Munich Security Conference, meeting with some other surviving Russian opposition figures, including businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who now resides in London, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who resides in New York City, and Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in Vilnius and heads an opposition government-in-exile from the Lithuanian capital.

Pevkur said: "These meetings are most needed, so that we can hear straight from the source how they see the situation both Russia and Belarus. But on the other hand, we want to listen to their assessment of the Navalny case."

"Khodorkovsky was straightforward. He said he felt he had done well to have survived all these years. He also stated very clearly that this must have been sanctioned by Putin. He did have some doubts, however, given that his earlier assessment had been that Putin did not want Navalny to die, either. Putin has no real need for martyrs, though. It is better to keep them in prison for a long time, than to kill them;" the minister went on.

Pevkur agreed that we will probably never know the real cause of Navalny's death. "We won't know this information until the end. Fortunately, the national broadcaster ERR showed Navalny's documentary again last night . Those who have seen it, know how Navalny was poisoned the first time. This operation was very clearly authorized by the FSB and by the Kremlin," Pevkur said.

"Sadly, those kind of things happen in Russia; there is no democratic state organization there," he concluded.

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