President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic Alexei Navalny died on Friday in a brutal penal colony after returning home from a nerve agent poisoning widely believed to have resulted from an assassination attempt.
The Russian opposition leader was 47 years old, married and the father of two children.
Russia’s Federal Prison Service claimed the “prisoner” died after “feeling unwell” and collapsed during a walk in the IK-3 penal colony in the remote town of Harup, about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow.
But the United States has joined other countries in bluntly condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin as a warmonger.
Vice President Kamala Harris said she heard “terrifying news” during a meeting with world leaders in Germany: “If confirmed, this would be yet another sign of President Putin’s brutality.” said.
“Whatever story they tell, let’s be clear: Russia is responsible.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier that Navalny’s death in a Russian prison and the obsession and fear of one man only underscore the weakness and corruption at the heart of the system President Putin has built. ” he said.
Blinken also flatly stated, “Russia is responsible for this.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared a similar message during a speech in Germany, calling for more help to fend off nearly two years of Russian aggression.
“It is clear that he was murdered by President Putin,” he said.
“Putin doesn’t care who dies, he just wants to maintain his position. That’s why he shouldn’t get attached to anything. must be held accountable for their actions.”
EU Council President Charles Michel said the EU held “full responsibility” to the Russian regime.
“Alexei Navalny fought for the values of freedom and democracy. He made the ultimate sacrifice for his ideals,” Michel said in a post on X.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevich similarly didn’t mince words, saying that Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin.”
“This is a fact and what you need to know about the nature of Russia’s current regime,” Rinkevich wrote to X. “My condolences go out to his family and friends.”
Mr Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, tweeted on Friday that there was still “no confirmation”.
Leonid Volkov, former head of Navalny’s political organization, stressed that there is “no basis for believing in state propaganda.”
“If that’s true, it doesn’t mean that Mr. Navalny is dead,” he said. “It only means that Mr. Putin killed him.”
Mr Navalny’s death came just one day after he appeared to be in good health during a court hearing via video link. During that time, Navalny could be heard joking and laughing with the judge.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, also said that her son was “alive, healthy and happy” when she last saw him on Monday, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta also reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin had been informed of Navalny’s death. The president has since been seen looking at ease at public events.
Asked about unconfirmed reports that Navalny died from a blood clot, Putin’s spokesperson said: I don’t know. Medical professionals need to determine that somehow. ”
The death announcement came days after outspoken critics called for fresh protests against next month’s presidential election.
He recently expressed concern after weeks of not hearing from supporters, but he has since started sharing messages online from behind bars. Most recently, two days ago, he sent his wife Yulia a sweet Valentine’s Day message.
“Baby, everything is like a song with you. Between us there are cities, the light of an airfield takeoff, a blue snowstorm and thousands of kilometers,” he wrote in a photo taken together I wrote it together with
“But I feel you closer every second, and I love you more and more.”
Yulia mentioned the “terrible news” while speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, vowing that Putin and his allies would not go unpunished if her husband’s death turned out to be true.
The two have been married since 2000 and have two children, daughter Daria and son Zakhar.
Navalny rose to prominence in Russia more than a decade ago for mocking President Putin’s elite and speaking out against allegations of massive corruption.
He became internationally known when he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020, and a Western clinical examination determined that the murder was an attempted murder with a nerve agent.
The Kremlin denies trying to kill him and says there is no evidence he was poisoned with a nerve agent.
Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia in 2021 after receiving life-saving treatment in Germany, but was quickly arrested and has been detained ever since.
Putin’s critics suggested his death was inevitable.
Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov called his death a “murder.”
“My sincere belief is that it was the conditions of detention that led to Mr. Navalny’s death… His sentence was supplemented by murder,” Muratov said.
with post wire
