Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, says Putin is the leader of an organized criminal gang.
Russian authorities have banned public gatherings in Navalny’s memory. (file)
Strasbourg, France:
Yulia Navalny, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said on Wednesday that she feared disruption and arrest at her husband’s funeral in Moscow on Friday.
Addressing the European Parliament, Navalny attacked Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a “mobster” responsible for her husband’s death in a fiery speech that drew prolonged applause.
“I’m not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband,” Navalnya told lawmakers, shortly after announcing that a funeral was scheduled for Friday at a Moscow church. it was done. ,
“Putin is the leader of an organized criminal gang,” Navalnya said. “You are not dealing with a politician but with a murderous dacoit.”
Russian officials have said Navalny died of natural causes after fainting while taking a walk in an Arctic prison colony.
His family rejected the claim.
“Alexey was tortured for three years,” Navalnya told lawmakers. “He was kept hungry in a small stone cell, cut off from the outside world and forbidden from meeting, making phone calls or even writing letters.”
“And then they killed her. Even after that, they abused her body,” she said.
Navalny’s body was kept for eight days in an attempt to conceal who his team believed was responsible for his death and to prevent a public burial.
“Putin will have to answer for everything he did to Alexei,” Navalnya said.
Russian authorities have cracked down on public celebrations commemorating Navalny and detained hundreds of people for laying flowers at monuments.
The opposition leader rose to prominence through his anti-corruption campaign, exposing corruption at the top of Putin’s administration.
He was arrested in January 2021 as he returned to Russia after being treated in Germany for a poisoning attack during the campaign against Putin in Siberia months earlier.
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