Sun 18 February 2024:
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates will not go unpunished if the death of Alexei Navalny, announced by the Russian prison service on Friday, is confirmed, the Kremlin critic’s wife said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Yulia Navalnaya said she was skeptical about the news of her husband’s death because it had come from Russian government sources.
“We cannot trust Putin and the Putin government. They always lie,” said Navalnaya, who was solemn and tearful.
“But if this is true, I want Putin, his entire entourage, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband. And this day will come very soon.”
She called on the international community to unite against what she called Russia’s “horrible regime”.
“Both this regime and Vladimir Putin must bear personal responsibility for all the terrible things they have been doing to my country, to our country, Russia, in recent years,” she said.
The White House is calling for an investigation into the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a spokesperson told reporters traveling with U.S. President Joe Biden aboard Air Force One on Friday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “shocked” by the death of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny and calls for a “full, credible and transparent investigation,” said his spokesman on Friday.
“The Secretary-General is shocked by the reported death and detention of opposition figure Alexei Navalny,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Guterres also expressed his condolences to Navalny’s family.
The Russian penitentiary service said Friday that Navalny had died in a prison colony where he was serving his sentence.
The service said in a statement that Navalny lost consciousness after a walk in the Arctic Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where the colony is located.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 after a hospital stay in Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning. Western countries and Navalny himself blamed Russia for the poisoning, a claim the Kremlin denies.
In August, he was handed a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism, and other crimes. He was already serving an 11.5-year sentence on fraud charges.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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