2024-02-20 12:57:01
The Kremlin has rejected an international investigation called for by the EU into the death of imprisoned opposition figure Alexei Navalny. “We do not accept such demands at all,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, according to Russian news agencies. Moscow sees this as interference in its internal affairs. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had called for such an investigation into the body, which was kept under lock and key in Russia.
Peskov also dismissed Yulia Navalnaya’s allegations that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin killed her husband as “unfounded and outrageous.” In a video message on Monday, the 47-year-old blamed Putin for Navalny’s death in the prison camp north of the Arctic Circle and announced that she would continue her husband’s fight once morest the Kremlin chief’s system.
Peskov said that neither he nor Putin had watched the video message. Given that “Julia Navalnaya is currently widowed,” he wanted to hold back on comments. At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman defended the brutal actions of security forces once morest Russians who laid flowers and lit candles in many cities across the country in memory of the dead Putin opponent. Peskov said the uniformed officers had fulfilled their duties in accordance with the law.
Julia Navalnja, however, appeared unimpressed by the Kremlin’s reaction and demanded that her husband’s body be returned. “I don’t care what the killer’s spokesman says regarding my words,” Navalnaya wrote on the online service take it,” she demanded.
Meanwhile, Alexei Navalny’s mother addressed Putin via video message and also asked for the body to be released. She is standing in front of the “Polar Wolf” prison camp and has been waiting for the fifth day to be able to see her son, said Lyudmila Navalnaya in the video message published on Tuesday. He died there on February 16th.
“I’m turning to you, Vladimir Putin. The decision on the question depends only on you. Let me finally see my son,” she said. “I demand that Alexei’s body be returned immediately so that I can bury him in a humane manner,” she said. She has not yet received the body nor has she been told where the body will be kept.
According to Navalny’s team, investigators had previously said that the body would be kept under lock and key for another 14 days pending investigation. On the other hand, relatives and employees of the opposition activist are demanding that the body be returned.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in recent days because they publicly commemorated the dead. In urgent proceedings, courts have imposed arrest or fines. Nevertheless, many Russians continued to publicly express their sadness. Navalny’s team criticized the fact that people in Russia are now being arrested for laying flowers.
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