THE WIFE OF Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said Vladimir Putin must be held to account for the “horrible things” he has done to Russia.
The Russian prison service earlier today said that Navalny had died in prison.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny mobilised huge anti-government protests against Vladimir Putin before being jailed in 2021.
The prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region, in North-Western Russia, said in a statement that Navalny “felt bad after a walk” and almost immediately lost consciousness.
The statement added that paramedics at the scene confirmed the death of the jailed political leader and that the “causes of death are being established”.
Speaking to the Munich Security Conference this afternoon, Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya said that she doesn’t know whether to believe the news of her husband’s death, “because for many years, and you know that well, we cannot believe Putin, we cannot believe Putin’s government, they are always lying”.
However, she said that if the news is true, she wants to see Putin and his government held “accountable for what they’ve done to our country, to my family and to my husband”.
“They will be liable for that, that day will come very soon,” Navalnaya said.
“I would like to call on the global community, everyone in this room, people around the world, that we would unite together and overcome the evil, overcome the terrible regime that is currently in Russia,” she said.
“That regime and Vladimir Putin has to be personally liable for all the horrible things they are doing to my country.”
'If this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family.'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 16, 2024
Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny's wife speaks after her husband's death.
More: https://t.co/rZ0pCSkmIO
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In Munich, Navalnaya met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who extended his condolences to her, and reiterated that Russia is “responsible” for his death.
Navalny’s mother, Liumila Navalnaya, said however that she did not want to “hear any condolences”.
“I saw my son on the 12th at the (prison) colony, we had a meeting. He was alive, healthy and cheerful,” she wrote on Facebook, according to Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he is “deeply shocked” by Navalny’s death and called it a “reminder of the repressive” nature of Putin’s regime.
Martin said Navalny’s death “underpins the lack of respect for the rule of law and protection of human rights in Russia”.
He added that it is a “a reminder of the repressive nature of the regime against its own people” and noted that Ireland had “consistently called for Navalny’s unconditional release before his death”.
The Tánaiste is also attending the Munich Security Conference today.
In 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent and accused Putin of being behind the attack – something the Kremlin denied.
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