Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband with a nerve agent.
She vowed to continue his anti-corruption work. Navalny’s cause of death remains undisclosed, with officials providing conflicting information.
“Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband Alexei Navalny. Putin killed the father of my children. Putin took away the most precious thing I had. Putin took away the closest and most beloved person,” Navalnaya said.
“I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country and I urge you to stand next to me,” she adding, noting that “Putin killed not just the man Alexei Navalny, he wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future.”
“The Investigative Committee informed the mother and the lawyers that the investigation of the death of Navalny has been extended. They don’t say how long it will take. The cause of death is still ‘unknown,’” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on X. “They lie, buy time for themselves and do not even hide it.”
“Alexei’s mother and his lawyers arrived at the morgue early in the morning. They were not allowed to go in,” Yarmysh wrote. “One of the lawyers was literally pushed out. When the staff was asked if Alexey’s body was there, they did not answer.”
World leaders, including President Biden, blame Putin for Navalny’s death, but the Kremlin denies these accusations.
Navalnaya criticized the handling of Navalny’s body and alleged a cover-up to hide evidence of foul play.
“Meanly and cowardly, they are now hiding his body, not showing it to his mother, not giving it, and pathetically lying and waiting for the traces of another Putin’s Novichok to disappear,” Navalnaya said. “We know why exactly Putin killed Alexei three days ago, we will tell you about it soon, we will definitely find out who exactly and how exactly this crime was carried out, we will name names and show faces.”
President Biden reiterated his belief that Putin is responsible for Navalny’s demise, while the Kremlin condemned accusations against Putin as “obnoxious.”
“We consider it absolutely unacceptable to make such, well, frankly obnoxious statements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “These statements, of course, cannot cause any damage to our head of our state.”
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