Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cautioned Sunday, February 18, against rushing to conclusions on how Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny died, in a break with Western leaders who have been quick to blame the Kremlin.

In some of the first comments on Navalny's death from a fellow member of the BRICS group of emerging nations, Lula said it was important to avoid "speculation" and await the results of an autopsy. "I think it's a matter of good sense... If the death was suspicious, we have to first investigate to find out what the citizen died of," Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit. "The medical examiners are going to say the guy died of this or that. Then you can judge. Otherwise, if you judge now and say I-don't-know-who ordered the killing and it wasn't them, afterward you have to apologize. Why the rush to accuse?"

Lula has faced criticism in the West as overly soft on Russian President Vladimir Putin, his fellow leader in the BRICS group – which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but was recently expanded to include several other emerging powers.

Lula, 78, has been critical of the US and European responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and said Kyiv shares the blame for the conflict and refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow.

Navalny, Putin's leading critic, died Friday in a remote Siberian prison after more than three years behind bars. He was 47. Lula said Navalny could have been sick or had a health problem, and warned against "trivializing" accusations of murder. "I don't want speculation," he said.