Alexeï Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaïa, promised to continue the fight once morest Vladimir Putin led by her husband and called on her supporters to join her, three days following the opponent’s death in prison in unclear conditions.
In a video published Monday, Yulia Navalnaïa, her voice sometimes tight with emotion, returned to the journey and suffering of her husband. And assured that she would take up the torch.
“Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny. Putin killed the father of my children (…) With him, (Putin) wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future“, asserted Yulia Navalnaïa.
“I will continue the work of Alexeï Navalny. I will continue for our country, with you. And I call on you all to stand close to me (…) It is not a shame to do little, it is a shame to do nothing, it is a shame to let yourself be frightened“, she insisted.
“We must unite to strike at one blow Putin, his friends, the thugs in epaulettes, the courtiers and the killers who want to paralyze our country“, she said once more.
Ms Navalnaïa assured that her team would find out who had committed “this crime” once morest her husband and under what circumstances.
Furthermore, she made a brief speech on Monday and was applauded at length, according to a European diplomat, during a meeting in Brussels of EU foreign ministers.
Putin will have to “accountable“, said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell on X at the end of this meeting, while American President Joe Biden said “consider“additional sanctions once morest Moscow.
“The European Union must act once morest political oppression in Russia“, affirmed Stockholm, which summoned the Russian ambassador to Sweden.
No access to the body
President Vladimir Putin’s number one adversary died Friday at the age of 47 in a prison in the Arctic, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where he was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism“.
The opponent’s mother and a lawyer, present on site, were deprived of access to the remains for at least 14 days, according to his team, which accuses the Kremlin of having killed him.
“Investigators have told Alexei’s lawyers and mother that they will not return his body, on which a so-called ‘chemical expertise’ will be carried out for 14 days.“Kira Iarmich, Mr. Navalny’s spokesperson, said on YouTube.
“They hide Navalny’s body to cover up traces of the murder“, she castigated, denouncing a “blatant lie” from the authorities.
Asked regarding the subject, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov limited himself to saying on Monday that an investigation was underway and that there were no results.for the moment“.
According to Evgeni Smirnov, a lawyer from the specialized NGO Pervy Otdel, investigators can legally keep the body of a person who died in prison for up to 30 days.
But, according to him, even following this deadline, the authorities can decide to open a criminal investigation, proceed “to new manipulations“and keep the corpse”as much as they want“.
“It is very easy to find legal reasons to keep the remains for months, or even longer.“, said the lawyer.
The opponent’s mother and a lawyer went to penal colony No. 3 on Saturday, located in a remote location, 2,000 kilometers from Moscow. According to the Russian Prison Service (FSIN), Alexei Navalny died there on Friday, the victim of a sudden malaise.following a walk“.
He had been imprisoned since his return to Russia in early 2021, following a serious poisoning, and his health had deteriorated. He had spent nearly 300 days in a disciplinary cell, in exhausting conditions of detention.
Vladimir Putin, who never mentioned Mr. Navalny’s name, has still made no comment on his death, which comes a month before the presidential election, the outcome of which is in no doubt.
Wave of emotion
The death of Alexeï Navalny has sparked a great wave of emotion in Russia and the West. Many Western leaders have blamed Moscow for his death. The Kremlin reacted on Monday by denouncing statements “odious“.
In Russia, modest attempts to pay tribute to the opponent, in the midst of repression and a campaign of intimidation once morest any criticism since the launch of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have been repressed.
This weekend, Russian police arrested hundreds of people in dozens of cities who came to lay flowers and light candles in his memory.
On Monday, however, the police allowed Muscovites, many of whom were crying, to march one by one to lay flowers on a monument in memory of the victims of political repression without violence.
“(Navalny) is a ray of light in our life. We will honor his memory and continue his work“, Larissa, a 54-year-old ambulance driver, told AFP.
Alexei Navalny was the most prominent opposition representative in Russia, where he gained significant popularity thanks to his in-depth investigations into corruption under the regime of Vladimir Putin.
AFP
