By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BRUSSELS/MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The widow of opposition leader, Kremlin critic, and anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny has vowed to continue his work and blamed Russia’s president for her husband’s death in an Arctic Circle prison on Friday.
Yulia Navalnaya also accused Russian authorities of blocking the family from seeing his body to allow traces of the nerve agent Novichok to disappear from his system.
Yet, in a video message, the widow said that despite the difficulties, “I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work. Continue to fight for our country. And I call on all of you to stand alongside me.”
Fighting back the tears, she added that Russian president Vladimir Putin “killed my husband.”
It comes as Navalny’s mother and lawyers have been blocked from entering a mortuary where his human remains could be kept, representatives said.
It is believed the body of the 47-year-old shows signs of mistreatment.
“I thought he was too big and important to be killed, but that illusion disappeared last Friday,” explained investor and activist Bill Browder, a close friend and ally of Navalny.
STANDARD PROCEDURE
Browder, whose lawyer also died in prison, said it is a “standard procedure in a political assassination” not to release the body in time. “It also happened when his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Russian jail. “They told the family that the cooling system of the morgue was broken,” Browder recalled.
His anger was shared by many in Russia, where hundreds of people demanding answers were detained over the weekend across Russia during protests and vigils remembering the late opposition leader Navalny.
At least one tearful older woman made clear she was prepared to risk her life by openly condemning Putin and his allies after laying flowers at a makeshift memorial in Moscow. “They are not afraid of blood because they don’t fight themselves. They earn money with this war [against Ukraine and dissent]. How many people became billionaires during the war?” she said on a cold, snowy winter day in Russia’s capital.
“They are traitors of the nation. Traitor Putin makes people slaves. He is illegitimate in power. Nobody really chose him. They are inhumane. They are not humans,” she said in footage seen by Worthy News.
“Sorry guys, I am already old. The only thing they can do is kill me. I want to shout to the people. We are the people. Without real people, you can’t do anything. Why do we still listen to them?” We are with 140 million,” she added.
The woman was among the many inspired by Navalny, who took to social media before his death. “I want to press this upon your heart. You should not give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are unbelievably strong. That strength we have to use,” he said.
The remarks aired on Dutch television moved Derk Sauer, the founder of The Moscow Times, one of the few independent newspapers in Russia.
NAVALNY’S HOPE
“That is still the power of Navalny, the hope, the courage, to continue,” Sauer said on the live televised Dutch political interview program Buitenhof. “I am getting emotional,” the Dutchman added before breaking down in tears. “This forces us to continue.”
Earlier in the interview, Sauer said Navalny “was able to bring hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. Navalny was flamboyant, optimistic and could joke about himself. Everything Navalny had, Putin doesn’t have,” added Sauer, whose staff had to flee Russia to the Netherlands.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, who met Navalny’s wife on Monday, agreed. “Navalny was murdered in a Russian jail by Putin’s regime,” Josep Borrell told reporters.
Borrell expressed support for Russians who wanted to pay tribute to Navalny in Russia despite the risks.
During an EU ministers meeting, the bloc agreed to call for an independent international investigation into Navalny’s death.
U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier that Putin was responsible for the death of the late opposition leader, who was once seen as a contender for the Russian presidency.
The EU shared Washington’s concerns. “The EU will spare no effort to hold Russia’s political leadership and authorities to account, in close coordination with our partners, and impose further costs for their actions, including through sanctions,” the bloc said.
KREMLIN DENIES
The Kremlin called the accusations “frankly obnoxious” and said there are “no results” yet in the investigation into the death.
Prison authorities said he suffered “sudden death syndrome” at the remote Arctic prison on Friday.
But Navalny’s allies say they have reasons to believe he was murdered on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
In 2020, Navalny tricked a Russian secret agent into publicly disclosing details of an earlier botched plot to kill him. The man told him in a recorded conversation that they had poison placed in his underwear.
Navalny became then ill during a Russian flight from Tomsk to Moscow.
He was taken to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing there and put in a coma, the secret agent recalled in the recorded conversation.
“In our work, you have to deal with unexpected circumstances. When the plane made an emergency landing, it didn’t end well for us,” the man explained.
On Friday, they got their revenge.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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