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Russia withholds Alexei Navalny's body.
But widow Yulia Navalnaya is already taking the lead in the fight against Putin.
Riga - Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest opponent, vowed on Monday (February 19) to continue her husband's fight: she would work to build a free, peaceful and happy Russia – a “beautiful Russia of the future, which my husband dreamed of so much”.
Navalnaya, 47, made her announcement in a video statement on YouTube.
She accused Russian authorities of fatally poisoning Navalny in the Arctic prison.
The Russian opposition figure died suddenly on Friday at the age of 47.
Navalny's widow believes in Novichok murder: "Putin killed him in a cowardly way"
Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks at the European Council building in Brussels.
© Yves Herman/picture alliance/dpa
“Putin didn’t just murder the man Alexei Navalny,” she said, dressed in black and her voice occasionally shaking, in the dramatic video address.
“He also wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future with him.” Navalnaya also accused the Russian authorities of refusing to hand over Navalny's body to his 69-year-old mother in order to cover up the cause of death.
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“They lie pathetically and wait for the traces of another Putin's Novichok to disappear there,” Navalnaya said.
She was referring to the class of nerve agents that, according to international investigators, Russian security officials used in an assassination attempt on her husband in August 2020.
“My husband could not be broken, and that is exactly why Putin killed him in a cowardly way,” she continued.
“He didn’t have the courage to look him in the eye or even say his name.
And now they are cowards too, hiding his body, not showing him to his mother, not giving him to her.”
Navalny's sudden death: whereabouts of the body unclear
Three days after Navalny's sudden death on Friday, the whereabouts of his body were still unclear.
His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, was again turned away by officials at the morgue in the Arctic city of Salekhard, 33 miles from the prison colony where he died, according to Navalny's press secretary.
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Navalny's grieving family and political team have been calling for the return of his remains since Saturday, but have faced a long, almost surreal battle to recover his body or even determine his whereabouts - with Russian authorities apparently determined to take any independent action to hinder investigation into the cause of death.
Navalnaya was in Brussels on Monday to address European Union foreign ministers, who had invited her as a sign of solidarity.
It was the next appointment after her emotional appearance at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, shortly after the news of her husband's death became known.
Yulia Navalnaya calls for sanctions from the EU: 500 oligarchs in view
At the meeting in Brussels, Navalnaya sat next to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, surrounded by diplomats and officials, and appeared exhausted but determined.
“Vladimir Putin and his regime will be held accountable for the death of Alexei,” Borrell wrote on X (former Twitter).
“As Yulia said: Putin is not Russia.
Russia is not Putin.”
A European diplomat said Navalnaya had called on the European Union to impose sanctions on 500 Russian oligarchs supporting Putin's re-election to prevent sanctions evasion by the Russian elite.
At the same time, she pushed for the financial flows from Putin's inner circle to be recorded.
Navalnaya also met European Council President Charles Michel.
Putin's crackdown on Navalny mourners: reassurance on Monday?
Across Russia on Monday, the initial crackdown on people showing their grief in public appeared to be easing.
As of 7:15 p.m., 32 people had been arrested in 16 cities and municipalities, wrote the
OVD-Info
monitoring group , which tracks arrests.
In total, about 400 people have been arrested since Friday, the group said.
In Moscow on Monday evening, under the watchful eyes of about a dozen police officers, scores of mourners laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone, a memorial to the victims of the Soviet gulags, to pay their last respects to Navalny.
Piles of red roses and carnations covered the monument and framed portraits of Navalny.
“Navalny was a very important person for us,” said Tanja, 37, who works in a publishing house and came to the monument with her 2-year-old daughter and a friend.
“Everyone believed that nothing bad would happen and that he would overcome all obstacles.
In today’s Russia we just don’t know what else we can do - some people give up.”
“Coming here to lay flowers makes me feel like I’m not alone,” added Tanja, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of repercussions.
Why did Alexei Navalny return to Russia?
In her video statement, Navalnaya vowed that she and her husband's team would find those directly responsible for Alexei Navalny's death and uncover the exact circumstances.
“We will name names and show faces.
But the most important thing we can do for Alexei and for ourselves is to keep fighting,” she said.
“I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny,” Navalnaya announced.
She also directly addressed one of the questions resonating in the West about her husband: Why did he return to Russia in 2021, risking arrest and death, when he could have lived peacefully in exile?
“He couldn’t,” she said, fighting back tears.
“Alexei loved Russia more than anything else in the world, he loved our country, he loved you.
He believed in us, in our strength, in our future and that we deserve only the best.”
Navalnaya meets Tichanowskaya
On Friday, after news of her husband's death broke, Navalnaya met with Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is also the wife of an imprisoned opposition politician and political prisoner.
Tikhanovskaya took her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky's, place as presidential candidate in August 2020 after he was arrested in May, two days after he announced he would run against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in the election.
Tichanowski remains in prison, Tichanowskaja lives in exile in Lithuania.
Eleven days later, on August 20, 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent.
Navalny later teamed up with investigative news group
Bellingcat
and was able to prove that a team of agents from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) was responsible for his pursuit and poisoning.
Navalny's lawyer is 'literally pushed out' of morgue
Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, was not allowed to see his body.
On Saturday she traveled to the “Arctic Wolf” prison above the Arctic Circle in the Yamal-Nenets region, where Navalny apparently died, and to the morgue there.
Prison officials gave her a note noting the time of death - 2:17 p.m. - but morgue officials denied they had the body.
After the Russian exile newspaper
Novaya Gazeta Europa
reported that Navalny's body was actually in the morgue in the regional capital of Salekhard, Lyudmila Navalnaya and Navalny's lawyers went to the morgue early Monday morning, where they were once again denied entry, according to Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh, who lives outside of Russia, shared on X.
“They weren’t allowed to go in.
One of the lawyers was literally pushed out,” Yarmysh wrote.
“When the staff was asked if Alexei's body was there, they did not answer.” Members of Navalny's team have also called his death a "murder," while many world leaders, including President Biden, blamed Putin for his death.
Navalny's body undergoes “chemical examination” – Putin does not comment
Amid concerns that the true cause of death may never be determined, Yarmysh accused officials of Russia's Investigative Committee, which deals with serious crimes, of delaying the investigation.
“They lie, buy time for themselves and don’t even hide it,” Jarmysch said Monday.
She later said the Russian Investigative Committee rejected the mother and lawyer's request to release the body and told them it would be kept for at least two more weeks.
The investigators claimed that the body would be subjected to “a kind of ‘chemical examination’” for another 14 days, Jarmysch wrote on X.
On Saturday, Lyudmila Navalnaya was initially told by prison officials that her son had died of a "sudden death," but Investigative Committee officials later issued contradictory statements, saying the cause was unknown.
Putin, who has long been careful never to mention Navalny's name, has not commented on his death.
Putin's spokesman refers to an ongoing "investigation" - and shoots against foreign countries
Navalny was barred from running in the 2018 Russian presidential election against Putin after performing unexpectedly well in the 2013 election for Moscow mayor.
Navalny has faced numerous criminal charges that he and many independent analysts believe were fabricated as political retaliation.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that Putin had made no reaction to Navalny's death and that the Kremlin was "not committed" to the issue of returning his body to his family.
Asked whether the Kremlin was concerned about a thorough investigation, Peskov replied: "The measures required by Russian legislation are being carried out."
“The investigation into Navalny’s death is ongoing,” he said.
“But the results have not yet been published.
They are not known." Peskov also criticized world leaders who blamed the Russian president for Navalny's death, calling it "absolutely unacceptable to make such outrageous statements."
Can Yulia Navalnaya follow in her husband's footsteps?
Analyst expects difficulties
Russian political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of the France-based analysis group R.Politics, said Navalnaya would have a hard time following in her husband's footsteps and becoming a major political figure with resonance within Russia.
"Despite possible recognition and respect from the international community, the lack of substantive support within Russia could significantly limit her effectiveness as a political figure," she said, adding that Tikhanovskaya has struggled to be relevant within Belarus even when she is was celebrated by Western leaders.
“Their success will depend on their ability to develop a unique political style, articulate their vision and assemble a professional team that does not scare off potential supporters,” Stanovaya said.
Blogger close to Putin claims Navalny has ties to Western secret services - without any evidence
A pro-Kremlin blogger, Sergei Markov, claimed without evidence that Navalny was an agent of British intelligence and the CIA and warned that Yulia Navalnaya could share his fate.
“She should be more careful,” Markov wrote on Telegram.
“The US and British intelligence services are now very cruel.
We advise her to escape to a quiet place.”
Tens of thousands of Russians have signed appeals to return Navalny's body to his family and give them access to the prison and its staff's video and body camera images.
More than 56,000 people signed a petition organized by
OVD-Info
to the Investigative Committee demanding the return of Navalny's body to the family, and more than 21,000 people signed a petition by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and longtime Novaya
Gazeta
editor Dmitry Muratov in which demands that the family be given access to the prison's surveillance footage.
Independent Russian media outlet
Mediazona
released a video on Sunday showing a convoy of two police cars and a prison van driving from Arctic Wolf Prison toward Salekhard on Friday evening, possibly recovering Navalny's body.
Novaya Gazeta Europe
reported, citing a paramedic, that Navalny's body was first taken to a district hospital in Salekhard, rather than directly to the morgue, as is common practice for deaths in prisons.
According to the paramedic, the body was later transferred to the mortuary.
To the authors
Emily Rauhala reported from Brussels and Francesca Ebel from Moscow.
Natalia Abbakumova and Mary Ilyushina in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 19, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.
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