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

Related: Alexei Navalny’s mother demands Vladimir Putin returns her son’s body

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.

Key points

• Cameron to set out consequences for Russia over Navalny's death
• Lyudmila Navalnaya urges Vladimir Putin to return her son’s body
• Kremlin opens new criminal case against Alexei Navalny’s brother Oleg
• X briefly suspends Yulia Navalnaya’s account

[20 February 2024 14:42 · Tom Watling]

Poland summons Russian ambassador over Navalny death

Poland’s Foreign Ministry has said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“The ministry called on Russian authorities to take responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny and conduct a full and transparent investigation to determine the circumstances and cause of his death,” the ministry said in a statement.

[20 February 2024 14:05 · Tom Watling]

Watch: Alexei Navalny’s mother makes direct plea to Vladimir Putin to release son’s body

Alexei Navalny’s mother has issued a video appeal directly to Vladimir Putin for the release of her son’s body.

In a recorded message outside the “Polar Wolf” Arctic Circle penal colony on Tuesday (20 February), Lyudmila Navalnaya said: “I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, because the solution to this problem depends only on you.

“Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so that I can bury him in a humane way.”

Russian authorities have said they will not return Mr Navalny’s body for two weeks while they continue investigating his death.

[20 February 2024 13:34 · Tom Watling]

Yulia Navalnaya’s X account restored

Yulia Navalnaya’s X account has been restored just minutes after it was suspended.

The wife of Alexei Navalny created an account on Monday, quickly amassing nearly 100,000 followers.

[20 February 2024 13:23 · Tom Watling]

Russia opens a new criminal case against Alexei Navalny’s brother -Tass

Russia has initiated a new criminal case against Oleg Navalny, the brother of dead Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Tass state news agency reported on Tuesday.

TASS did not say under which article of the criminal code the case had been opened, but said police were searching for Oleg Navalny. who was already on the wanted list in connection with another matter.

In 2014, Oleg Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for fraud in a case Kremlin critics said was trumped up and designed to pile pressure on his late brother.

[20 February 2024 13:17 · Tom Watling]

X/Twitter bans Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya for breaking its rules

X, formerly known as Twitter, has banned the account of Alexei Navalny’s widow.

Yulia Navalnaya set up her account on Monday. She has since used it to commit to holding Russian president Vladimir Putin to account.

[20 February 2024 13:05 · Tom Watling]

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...

[20 February 2024 12:57 · Alexander Butler]

X, formerly Twitter, suspends Yulia Navalnaya’s account

X, formerly Twitter, has suspended the account of Alexei Navalny’s widow. It is unclear why the social media network has removed her profile.

Yulia Navalnaya joined the platform on Monday, where she vowed to carry on the work of her husband and hold Russian president Vladimir Putin to account.

Mrs Navalnaya accused Putin of killing her husband with novichock poison and said evidence would be provided over the next few days. The Kremlin denied any involvement in his death.

X, formerly Twitter, has suspended the account of Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya (X)

[20 February 2024 12:37 · Tom Watling]

Alexei Navalny’s widow meets with European Council president in Brussels

European Council president, Charles Michel, met with the widow of Alexei Navalny in Brussels on Monday 19 February, where she is also due to meet EU Foreign Affairs Ministers.

Yulia Navalnaya vowed to continue her late husband’s fight against the Kremlin while authorities denied his mother access to a morgue where Mr Navalny’s body is believed to be held after his death last week at an Arctic penal colony.

Russian authorities said that the cause for his death on Friday at age 47 is still unknown.

Mr Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Russia after recuperating in Germany from poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he blamed on the Kremlin.

[20 February 2024 12:07 · Tom Watling]

Critics like Navalny need support against ‘monster’ Putin, says Alexander Litvinenko’s widow

Critics like Alexei Navalny need support from the West against the “monster” Vladimir Putin, Alexander Litvinenko’s widow has said.

Marina Litvinenko’s husband, a prominent Putin critic and Russian defector, died in 2006 after becoming violently ill in London having been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. A British inquiry found that Russian agents had killed Mr Litvinenko, probably with Putin’s approval, but the Kremlin denied any involvement.

He is among the many Kremlin political critics, turncoat spies and investigative journalists who have been killed or assaulted in a variety of ways over the years.

[20 February 2024 11:42 · Tom Watling]

Navalny’s mother makes direct plea to Vladimir Putin for her son’s body to returned

The mother of Alexei Navalny has made a direct plea to Vladimir Putin for her son to be returned.

In a video released on YouTube, Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, standing outside the “Polar Wolf” Arctic Circle penal colony where Mr Navalny died, said: “I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, because the solution to this problem depends only on you.

“Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so that I can bury him in a humane way.”