U.S. President Joe Biden also said Putin “bears responsibility” for Navalny’s death. (document)
Moscow:
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is so disliked by President Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin leader refuses to publicly name him.
Navalny, who was pronounced dead in an Arctic prison on February 16, was Putin’s most prolific critic for more than a decade, lashing out at what Putin said was rampant corruption and refusing to back down even after being poisoned.
The lawyer-turned-politician exposed the ill-gotten gains made by Putin’s inner circle in an investigation that drew tens of thousands to the streets.
He tapped into ordinary Russians’ fatigue with national politics, and his optimistic vision of a democratic Russia resonated across the country.
Before his near-fatal poisoning in 2020, Navalny had been jailed, charged with fraud, placed under house arrest, harassed and partially blinded by a chemical attack.
He was imprisoned in a Siberian prison and died in isolation at the age of 47.
“Brave and principled”
His treatment by Russian authorities has drawn scorn from the Russian opposition and the West.
Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov said Navalny has been “tortured and tortured” since his arrest in January 2021.
His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin of being the former KGB agent who ultimately ordered his killing. She vowed that Putin would pay for what he had done “to our country…to my husband.”
U.S. President Joe Biden also said Putin “bears responsibility” for Navalny’s death.
Biden said Navalny was “courageous, principled and committed to building a Russia where the rule of law exists and applies to everyone.”
‘Putin is afraid of me’
Navalny’s team said the Kremlin feared him even after his death, as they accused Russian authorities of blocking a public funeral.
Navalny rose to prominence in the 2010s with flashy YouTube videos that exposed systemic corruption at the heart of the government.
The investigations revealed palaces, mistresses and foreign bank accounts, embarrassing the Kremlin and sending crowds to the streets of Russia. Riot police cracked down on the protesters.
He was banned from campaigning against Putin in 2018, telling AFP that Putin was “afraid of me and afraid of the people I represent”.
Five years ago, he defeated a Kremlin-backed candidate in Moscow’s mayoral election, winning a large number of votes without the full force of the media and state apparatus trying to stop him.
In 2020, he survived a poisoning incident, which he blamed on the Kremlin.
Video showed that in August 2020, he was screaming in pain due to poisoning while taking a domestic flight.
Navalny was flown to Germany for treatment, where tests showed he had been poisoned by the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
Multiple media investigations claimed that a strike team from the FSB security service was behind the attack.
Navalny posted a video tricking a would-be assassin into revealing that he smeared Novichok on Navalny’s underwear.
Asked about the accusations, Putin said that if the security services were indeed behind the poisoning, they would have done the job long ago.
‘my country’
Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 despite knowing he faced arrest. His detention at a Moscow airport sparked massive demonstrations.
Days later, Navalny’s team released another investigation into a luxury Black Sea mansion they claimed belonged to Putin. The president issued a rare denial.
Navalny, who was eventually sentenced to 19 years in prison on “extremism” charges in what was widely seen as retribution, expressed frustration at being repeatedly asked whether he regretted returning to Russia.
“I have my country, I have my beliefs,” he said in January. “I don’t want to give up on any of them.”
“Pointless war”
For some, Navalny is tainted by his early forays into far-right nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric, while many Russians support the Kremlin’s portrayal of him as a Western stooge.
As the Kremlin launched an offensive against Ukraine, dismantling his organization and jailing his allies, Navalny was helpless behind bars.
In grainy video of the court hearing, he criticized Ukraine’s campaign.
Navalny said Russia “is struggling in mud or pools of blood, with broken bones, a population impoverished and robbed, with tens of thousands of people killed all around.”
He died in a harsh Arctic prison – nicknamed “The Polar Wolf” – of unknown causes.
Navalny’s last social media post before his death was dedicated to his wife Yulia, who pledged to continue his work.
If he is killed, he will leave a message to the Russian people.
“Don’t give up. You can’t, you can’t give up,” he said.
“As long as good people do nothing, evil can win. So don’t do nothing.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
