Yulia Navalnaya accuses Putin of killing her husband (File)
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has asked the European Union not to recognize Russia’s March election, which is almost certain to give President Vladimir Putin another victory Six-year term.
Navalnaya called on supporters in a video message from abroad on Monday to oppose Putin with unprecedented fury and free Russia from what she described as a corrupt elite of “uniformed bandits, thieves and murderers.”
Navalnaya told EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday that he “does not recognize these elections,” according to a transcript provided by a spokesman on Tuesday.
“By definition, it cannot be legal to assassinate a president who is a major political opponent,” Navalnaya said.
Navalnaya accused Putin of killing her husband and said evidence would be provided soon. Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, blamed Putin for the deaths and warned of the consequences. They provided no evidence.
Putin has yet to comment publicly on Navalny’s death. The Kremlin denies involvement and says Western claims that Putin is responsible are completely unacceptable.
Opinion polls show Putin, 71, with an approval rating of over 80% ahead of the March 15-17 presidential election in which three minor candidates will challenge him. With the full support of the Russian state, state media and little mainstream public dissent, he is certain to win.
Opposition politicians said the election provided a democratic fig leaf to hide the reality of a corrupt dictatorship. The Kremlin says Putin is by far Russia’s most popular politician.
Video message
Navalny, 47, died suddenly on Friday after falling into coma after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle, the prison service said. He is serving a three-year sentence at the prison.
Three days after Putin’s death, Navalnaya, a 47-year-old mother of two who alternated between anger and sadness, said in a video statement that she would help lead a shell-shocked opposition in its resistance to Russia’s top leader. More than twenty years.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Putin had not watched her video statement.
Navalnaya said authorities still had not handed over Navalny’s body to his mother Lyudmila, who traveled to a penal colony over the weekend, because they were waiting for traces of the Novichok nerve agent to be recovered from his body. left on the body. She provided no evidence to support her accusation.
Navalny’s allies quoted a Russian investigator as saying it would take at least 14 days for authorities to conduct various chemical tests on his body, so his body could not yet be handed over.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, asked Putin to hand over her son’s body in a video message released on Tuesday. “Let me finally see my son,” she said.
Asked about Yulia Navalnaya’s accusation that Putin killed her husband, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that he could not comment given the current situation.
“We have no comment. Of course, these are absolutely baseless and disgusting accusations against the Russian head of state. But considering that Yulia Navalnaya was widowed just a few days ago, I will not comment. .”
Peskov said Navalnaya’s claims that a nerve agent was used on her husband were baseless.
“I’m not familiar with the statement. But if it contains such words, they are nothing more than unsubstantiated accusations because they have no support and have not been substantiated,” he said.
Asked about police detaining some people who laid flowers at monuments in Moscow and other cities after Navalny’s death, Peskov said police acted in accordance with the law.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
