Alexei Navalny latest: UK first country to issue sanctions over ‘brutal’ killing of Putin critic in prison
The details of Alexei Navalny’s death remain unclear. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, says that he was poisoned
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The UK has frozen the assets of six Russian prison bosses in charge of the Arctic penal colony where opposition leader Alexei Navalny died.
Western leaders say the blame for Mr Navalny’s death lies with the Russian authorities, including Vladimir Putin. Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s wife, has said she believes her husband was poisoned with Novichok.
“Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion - we will hold them accountable,” UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.
The UK is the first country to impose sanctions in response to his death, the Foreign Office said.
It comes as the Salekhard City Court, the city in which Mr Navalny’s body was supposedly transferred after his death, said it will consider the demand of his mother to have his body returned on 4 March.
Elsewhere, Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the human rights group Gulag.net claimed to The Times that he believed the Russian authorities kept Mr Navalny’s body out in the cold for hours before killing him, potentially with one punch to the heart. Claiming that former prisoners from the Arctic region had previously told of such deaths. The details of Mr Navalny’s death are still unclear.
Sunak and Starmer pay tribute to Alexei Navalny after Putin critics death
Sunak and Starmer pay tribute to Alexei Navalny after Putin critics death
UK sanctions heads of Arctic penal colony where Navalny died
Britain has imposed sanctions on six individuals in charge of the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died last week.
Those sanctioned, including the head and five deputy heads of the penal colony, will be banned from the UK and have their assets frozen, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.
“It’s clear that the Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him,” Cameron said in a statement.
“Those responsible for Navalny‘s brutal treatment should be under no illusion - we will hold them accountable.”
Jailed Navalny team member issues first message since opposition figure’s death
Jailed Russian opposition figure Lilia Chanysheva, a member of Alexei Navalny’s team, has issued her first message following the death of the 47-year-old lawyer.
Ms Chanysheva, who was detained in November 2021 on extremism-related charges, posted a picture of her and Mr Navalny together on Telegram. She was the first member of Mr Navalny’s team to be arrested after his organisation was labelled “extremist” by the Putin regime.
“Censorship does not allow me to say everything I think about the death of Alexei Navalny,” she wrote alongside the photo. “My condolences to your loved ones and parents. I’m grieving.”
Over the past few days, other jailed Russian activists have been issuing public messages of support for Mr Navalny, having heard about his death days after it actually happened.
Tens of thousands demand Russian authorities release Navalny’s body
More than 75,000 people have sent letters to the Russian investigative committee demanding that Alexei Navalny’s body is returned to his family, according to a human rights group.
Mr Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, demanded the return of her son’s body yesterday, making a direct plea to Vladimir Putin outside the “Polar Wolf” penal colony where the Russian opposition figure was killed.
But Russia’s investigative committee have said they plan to hold his body for two weeks to carry out examinations into his death. Mr Navalny’s wife has said the investigators are using this time to cover the traces of their alleged murder by Novichok poisoning.
Russian human rights group OVD-Info said it has recorded 76, 207 letters sent to the investigators committee calling for Mr Navalny’s release.
Czech foreign ministry summons Russian ambassador over Navalny's death -news agency
The Czech Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, CTK news agency has said.
X/Twitter bans Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya for breaking its rules
X, formerly known as Twitter, briefly banned the account of Alexei Navalny’s widow.
Yulia Navalnaya set up her account on Monday, days after Mr Navalny’s death was announced. She has since used it to commit to holding Russian president Vladimir Putin to account.
On Tuesday afternoon, however, the account disappeared. It was replaced with a message indicating that it had been suspended because it had broken the site’s rules.
X briefly bans Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya account by mistake
Account restored again following international outcry
Alexei Navalny's mother files lawsuit with a Russian court demanding release of her son's body
The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has filed a lawsuit at a court in the Arctic city of Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release her son’s body, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Wednesday. A closed-door hearing has been scheduled for March 4, the report said, quoting court officials. Lyudmila Navalnaya has been trying to retrieve her son’s body since Saturday, following his death in a penal colony in Russia’s far north a day earlier. She has been unable to find out where his body is being held, Navalny‘s team reported. Navalnaya appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday to release her son’s remains so that she could bury him with dignity.
“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him. They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is,” a black-clad Navalnaya, 69, said in the video, with the barbed wire of Penal Colony No. 3 in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Who is Yulia Navalnaya – the woman vowing to carry forward Navalny’s battle against Putin
Before the sudden death of her husband Alexei Navalny in a grim Arctic prison last week, Yulia Navalnaya had always played down the suggestion that she would one day take over as leader of Russia’s opposition.
But on Monday, as the 47-year-old widow alternated between rage and grief, she gave a powerful speech signalling that she would be there to help lead a shell-shocked opposition – a job fraught with danger.
“I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” said the mother-of-two in a video message. Stepping out of the shadow of her dead husband, she called on his supporters to “share the rage” and “stand” with her.
Who is Yulia Navalnaya: Putin’s next political threat
Until Navalny’s death, his 47-year-old wife steered clear of politics and played down the idea of taking over as leader of Russia’s opposition
Trump says Navalny was 'brave,' but should not have returned to Russia
Former US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Alexei Navalny was “a very brave man” who probably should not have returned to Russia, without assigning any blame for the Russian opposition leader’s unexpected death.
Democratic President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny‘s death, as has Nikki Haley, who trails far behind Trump as his sole remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Navalny is a very sad situation, and he is a very brave, he was a very brave guy because he went back. He could have stayed away,” Trump said during a town hall interview with Fox News in South Carolina.
“And, frankly, he probably would have been a lot better off staying away and talking from outside of the country as opposed to having to go back in, because people thought that could happen and it did happen. And it’s a horrible thing,” he said.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in Navalny‘s death and said Western claims that Putin was responsible are unacceptable.
Trump - who has expressed admiration for Putin both during his 2017-2021 White House tenure and afterward - continued to compare himself to Navalny, implying that they both had faced politically motivated prosecutions.
“But it’s happening in our country too,” Trump said. “We are turning into a communist country in many ways. And if you look at it - I’m the leading candidate. I get indicted.”
On Sunday, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that Navalny‘s death in an Arctic penal colony last week had made him “more aware of what is happening” in the United States. Trump did not elaborate, but he has frequently dismissed the 91 criminal charges against him as politically motivated, a claim prosecutors deny.
Long Read | Alexei Navalny – the man who knew too much
“The reason why it all happened is one man’s hatred and fear – one man hiding in a bunker. I mortally offended him by surviving an attempt at my life he ordered. And then I committed an even more serious offence: I didn’t go into hiding. And that’s driving this thieving little man in his bunker out of his mind.”
So declared the accused from behind his courtroom cage as he prepared to be sentenced to jail. His crime was to have challenged the man in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, with the one tool remaining, the power of speech.
That act of defiance exactly three years ago, was the beginning of the end of the life of Alexei Navalny.
John Kampfner reports:
Alexei Navalny – the man who knew too much
For a decade and more, he and his team deployed a mix of tenacity and mockery to probe the Mafia-style financial links between those at the top of Russian politics, security and business, writes John Kampfner. Frozen out of state-controlled mainstream media, Navalny used every digital platform and every social media channel available to shine a light on Putin’s corrupt regime, surviving multiple poisonings and incarceration until he was finally – and inevitably – silenced by his greatest foe...
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