The widow of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny
accused the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, of killing her husband on Monday
, and promised that she will continue fighting for the "freedom" of her country.
"Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny.
Putin killed the father of my children
," said Yulia Navalnaya, holding back tears in a video published this Monday on social networks.
"With him, (Putin) wanted to kill our spirit, our freedom, our future," he added.
Prison authorities said Navalny died after losing consciousness after a walk on Friday in the remote Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence.
"They couldn't break my husband,
that's why Putin killed him
," Navalnaya said, adding that her husband was "mistreated, isolated from the world" and "still didn't give up."
The opposition leader to Putin died in a Russian maximum security prison at the age of 47.
Photo: EFE/Robert Ghement.
The opposition leader's wife promised to find out "who carried out this crime" and under what circumstances.
"I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue for our country, with you. I ask everyone to be by my side (...). It is not a shame to do little, it is a shame to do nothing, it is a shame to allow yourself to be afraid "he declared.
Navalny
had been sentenced to 19 years in prison
for "extremism," and was perceived by many as Russia's best hope for change.
The announcement of his death last week caused dismay among his supporters, many of them young, condemnation from Western powers, and accusations that Russian authorities were responsible for his death.
Navalny, a lawyer and blogger, established himself over 12 years as the number one detractor of Putin and his "party of thieves and swindlers," as he used to describe it.
Harassed by the authorities and ignored by the official media, he gained notoriety on the internet through his presence on social networks, thanks to the dissemination of viral video investigations that denounced the corruption of Russian power.
In
January 2021, he was arrested upon returning to his country after recovering
in Germany, where he was hospitalized after being the victim of poisoning in Russia that he attributed to Putin, something that the Kremlin has always denied.
A staunch opponent of Putin, who always refused to pronounce his name, Navalny had called for a protest against the president in the country's voting centers during the presidential elections that will be held from March 15 to 17.