Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson stated on Tuesday that Putin had not seen the video where Alexei Navalny’s widow vowed to continue his fight against the Kremlin. The spokesperson dismissed her allegations that Putin had killed the country’s opposition leader as “unfounded” and “insolent.” Yulia Navalnaya, in the video released Monday, accused Putin of killing her husband in the remote Arctic prison and alleged that officials’ refusal to hand over his body to his mother was part of a cover-up. She suggested Navalny might have been killed with a Novichok-style nerve agent.
Russian authorities claimed that the cause of Navalny’s death on Friday is still unknown, and the results of any investigation are likely to be questioned abroad. Many Western leaders have already held Putin responsible for the death. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov labeled the accusations against Putin as “absolutely unfounded” and “insolent.” Navalny’s death has left the Russian opposition without its most well-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is likely to keep Putin in power for another six years.
Navalny, 47, had been imprisoned since January 2021, following his return to Moscow after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He had received three prison terms since his arrest, all of which he rejected as politically motivated. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, called for an international investigation into Navalny’s death, but Peskov stated that the Kremlin would not accept such a demand. Since Navalny’s death, around 400 people have been detained by police in Russia as they visited ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repression with flowers and candles to honor Navalny, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests.
Authorities have cordoned off some memorials across the country and have been removing flowers at night, but they keep reappearing. Peskov stated on Tuesday that police were acting “in accordance with the law” when they detained people paying tribute to Navalny. Over 50,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government asking for Navalny’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, according to OVD-Info. After the last verdict that handed him a 19-year term, Navalny said he understood he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime.” In her video statement on Monday, Navalnaya said, “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart, and half of my soul.” She vowed to continue the work of Alexei Navalny.
