US President Joe Biden mentioned he was outraged and joined different Western leaders in criticising Russia over Alexei Navalny’s dying, blaming it on “one thing that Putin and his thugs did.”
Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable home opponent, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a stroll on the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony the place he was serving a three-decade sentence, authorities mentioned.
The dying of Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, robs the disparate Russian opposition of its most outstanding chief as Putin prepares for an election which is able to maintain the previous KGB spy in energy till at the very least 2030.
Navalny rose to prominence greater than a decade in the past by documenting and talking publicly about what he mentioned was the huge corruption and opulence among the many “crooks and thieves” operating Putin’s Russia.
There are not any different opposition leaders in Russia of Navalny’s stature. For some younger city Russians, Navalny had supplied hope of another future to Putin, who has served as Russia’s paramount chief longer than anybody since Josef Stalin.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District mentioned in a press release that Navalny felt unwell after a stroll on the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km northeast of Moscow.
He misplaced consciousness virtually instantly and died shortly afterwards, it mentioned, including that resuscitation makes an attempt failed.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, mentioned there was “virtually no hope” that he was alive.
Navalny’s spouse, Yulia, informed the Munich Safety Convention she couldn’t ensure her husband was lifeless as a result of “Putin and his authorities… lie incessantly”.
“But when that is true, I would like Putin, his complete entourage, Putin’s buddies, his authorities to know that they are going to bear accountability for what they did to our nation, to my household, to my husband,” she mentioned.
The Kremlin mentioned Putin had been knowledgeable of Navalny’s dying. The 71-year-old former KGB spy was proven assembly employees at a manufacturing facility in Chelyabinsk, within the Ural mountains. He mentioned nothing in public about Navalny.
Western leaders paid tribute to Navalny’s braveness as a fighter for freedom. Some, with out citing proof, accused the Kremlin of homicide and mentioned Putin needs to be held accountable.
Talking in Munchen, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken mentioned Navalny’s dying in a Russian jail and “the fixation and worry of 1 man solely underscores the weak point and decay on the coronary heart of the system that Putin has constructed”.
“Russia is answerable for this”, he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned on X, previously Twitter: “In immediately’s Russia, free spirits are put within the Gulag and sentenced to dying.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz mentioned he had met Navalny “right here in Berlin when he was attempting to get better in Germany from the poisoning assault and likewise talked to him in regards to the nice braveness it takes to return to his nation. And he has in all probability now paid for this braveness along with his life.”
Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned on X: “Putin fears nothing greater than dissent from his personal folks”.
Council President Charles Michel posted on X: “The EU holds the Russian regime for sole answerable for this tragic dying”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the response of Western leaders to the dying was unacceptable and “completely rabid”.
“We don’t know precisely what occurred, however there isn’t any doubt that the dying of Navalny was a consequence of one thing that Putin and his thugs did,” Biden mentioned on the White Home.
“Russian authorities are going to inform their very own story,” Biden mentioned. “However make no mistake. Make no mistake: Putin is answerable for Navalny’s dying.”
Homicide accusation
Navalny’s motion is outlawed and most of his senior allies now dwell in exile in Europe.
“If this (information of Navalny’s dying) is true, then it’s not ‘Navalny died’, however ‘Putin killed Navalny’,” Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of workers, mentioned. The Kremlin didn’t reply to the accusation.
Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, mentioned his motion and goals would dwell on.
“We’re satisfied that we are going to be victorious ultimately,” she mentioned. “Russia is our nation, it belongs to us and we have to return it us.”
Navalny’s lawyer was on his strategy to the powerful penal colony the place Navalny was serving sentences that might have saved him in jail past the age of 70.
Navalny earned admiration from Russia’s opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, the place he had been handled for what Western laboratory assessments confirmed was an try and poison him with a nerve agent.
Navalny mentioned on the time that he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020. The Kremlin denied attempting to kill him and mentioned there was no proof he was poisoned with a nerve agent.
Grigory Yavlinsky, a veteran liberal, mentioned Navalny’s dying confirmed the necessity for reform and echoed many opposition figures in saying he feared for the well being of different activists in jail.
In Moscow, at a memorial to the victims of Soviet political repression within the shadow of the previous KGB headquarters, some folks laid roses and carnations. Police regarded on.
One be aware learn: “Alexei Navalny – we bear in mind you.”
Russian prosecutors warned folks not to participate in any mass conferences in Moscow. Supporters organized conferences to honour Navalny in London, Paris, Oslo, Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Geneva, Prague, Yerevan, Tbilisi and Vilnius.
Russia’s future
Navalny had forecast Russia may face political turmoil as a result of he mentioned Putin constructed a brittle system of non-public rule reliant on corruption. The Kremlin dismissed his accusations about huge corruption and about Putin’s private wealth.
Russian officers forged Navalny as an extremist who was a puppet of the CIA, which they are saying is intent on sowing chaos and turning Russia right into a consumer state of the West.
A day earlier than his dying, Navalny peered via a barred window, laughing and cracking jokes about his depleting funds and the decide’s wage.
“Your Honour, I’ll ship you my private account quantity so as to use your big wage as a federal decide to ‘heat up’ my private account, as a result of I’m operating out of cash,” he mentioned by way of video hyperlink.
When demonstrations in opposition to Putin flared in December 2011, after an election tainted by fraud accusations, he was one of many first protest leaders arrested.
In an interview in Moscow in 2011, Navalny was requested by Reuters if he was afraid of difficult Putin’s system.
“That’s the distinction between me and also you: you might be afraid and I’m not afraid,” he mentioned. “I notice there may be hazard, however why ought to I be afraid?”
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
Learn extra with Euractiv
