Yulia Navalnaya has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband, Alexey Navalny, and pledged to proceed the late opposition chief’s struggle for a “free Russia”.
“Three days in the past, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexey Navalny,” the widow stated in a nine-minute video launched on Monday.
“By killing Alexey, Putin killed half of me – half of my coronary heart and half of my soul. … However I nonetheless have the opposite half, and it tells me that I’ve no proper to surrender. I’ll proceed the work of Alexey Navalny, proceed to struggle for our nation,” she stated as she fought again tears.
“I wish to dwell in a free Russia. I wish to construct a free Russia,” Navalnaya stated.
“I urge you to face subsequent to me,” she stated. “I ask you to share the fad with me. Rage, anger, hatred in the direction of those that dared to kill our future.”
Navalny died on Friday on the age of 47 within the IK-3 most safety jail colony in Kharp, a city north of the Arctic Circle about 1,900km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, the place he was serving a 19-year sentence on expenses of extremism.
The circumstances surrounding the dying of the opposition chief stay murky. Moscow says Navalny felt sick and fainted after a stroll and medics’ efforts to resuscitate him failed.
Three days after his dying, Navalny’s household has not been allowed to see his physique.
The jail colony advised Navany’s mom on Saturday that her son’s physique was in a morgue in Salekhard, a city close to the jail. After a household go to there, Kira Yarmysh, a Navalny household spokesperson, stated the physique was not within the morgue.
On Monday, Russian authorities knowledgeable Navalny’s mom and legal professionals that an investigation into his dying “has been prolonged” indefinitely, including that the reason for the dying remains to be “unknown”, Yarmysh wrote on social media.
The Investigative Committee knowledgeable the mom and the legal professionals that the investigation of the dying of Navalny has been prolonged. They don’t say how lengthy it is going to take. The reason for dying remains to be “unknown.”
They lie, purchase time for themselves and don’t even cover it.
— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) February 19, 2024
Navalnaya accused Russian authorities of hiding Navalny’s physique and of ready for traces of a Novichok nerve agent to vanish from his physique.
Impartial media outlet Mediazone obtained footage displaying 4 automobiles, together with these of the penitentiary service, crossing the one highway linking Labytnangi, near the jail, with Salekhard. In response to the media outlet, the weird convoy means that Navalny’s physique was being transported to Salekhard.
The shortage of readability over the dying of the opposition activist – who appeared in good well being and cracking jokes with a choose only a day earlier than his dying – has led many Western leaders, together with US President Joe Biden, to put the duty of his dying on Putin.
European Union international coverage chief Josep Borrell stated on Monday that Putin could be held accountable for Navalny’s dying and he anticipated EU member states to suggest new sanctions on these instantly accountable for Navalny’s remedy, together with officers in Russia’s jail system.
At a gathering of EU international ministers in Brussels, German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock stated the diplomats would “provoke additional sanctions measures” over Navalny’s dying.
The Kremlin on Monday referred to as Western accusations over Moscow’s involvement in Navalny’s dying “boorish” and stated “all mandatory measures are being taken”.
“In circumstances the place there is no such thing as a info, we take into account it completely inadmissible to make such, let’s say, frankly boorish statements,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov advised reporters.
Navalny, a former lawyer, rose to prominence campaigning towards corruption. He was identified for his fiery rhetoric at public protests and in courts and his staff’s elaborate video investigations into state graft.
After the information of his dying, hundreds of individuals braved winter temperatures in Russia to pay him tribute. Greater than 360 folks have been arrested throughout 39 cities, in keeping with the OVD-Information rights group, as they laid flowers at monuments to victims of political repression and at advert hoc memorials.
The rights group launched a petition marketing campaign demanding the Investigation Committee hand over Navalny’s physique to his household. Greater than 50,000 folks have signed the doc.
