The widow of the late Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny bluntly accuses the Kremlin of having killed her husband, whose death was announced on Saturday morning.
• Read also – Death of Navalny: investigation underway, no results “for the moment”, according to the Kremlin
• Read also – Russia: around a hundred people arrested during rallies for Navalny
• Read also – Navalny’s team accuses Russia of hiding his body to ‘cover up’ the ‘killers’
In a video posted on social networks, Yulia Navalnaïa declares that “(Vladimir) Putin killed my husband” (see at the top of the article).
“Putin killed the father of my children. With him, (Putin) wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future,” asserted Mr.me Navalnaïa, who promises to continue her husband’s “work”.
“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 oneself be frightened.”
Relatives of the late Russian opposition leader Alexeï Navalny were deprived of access to his remains on Monday, for the third day in a row, said his team, which doubts the version of the Russian authorities and accuses them of “lies”.
- Listen to the American political discussion with Stéphan Bureau on Alexandre Dubé’s microphone via QUB:
Berlin summons Russian ambassador
The German Foreign Ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador to Germany following the death in prison in Russia of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, a government spokeswoman said on Monday.
“The politically motivated prosecution of Alexei Navalny and many other critics of the Russian government as well as the inhumane conditions of detention show how brutally the Russian justice system acts against those who think differently and what means President Putin uses to suppress the freedom of “expression in Russia,” said this spokesperson during a regular press conference.
“We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and expressly call for the release of all political prisoners in Russia, particularly since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” she added.
The British government, for its part, summoned diplomats from the Russian embassy on Friday evening to let them know that the Russian authorities are held “fully responsible” for the death of the number one opponent of the Kremlin.
The death of Mr Navalny, 47, in a remote Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence, was announced on Friday. He died after three years of detention and a poisoning for which he blamed the Kremlin.
Westerners unanimously pointed the finger at the Russian authorities, whom they hold responsible for this death which deprives an already bloodless opposition of its figurehead, one month before the presidential election which should once again cement the power of Vladimir Putin after years of repression of all dissent.