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Post by Newsman on Feb 16, 2024 16:16:19 GMT -5
 ....one of Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics died Friday....(The Guardian) Alexei Navalny dies in prisonThe Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in jail, the country’s prison service has said, in what is likely to be seen as a political assassination attributable to Vladimir Putin. Navalny, 47, one of Putin’s most visible and persistent critics, was being held in a jail about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”. In early December he had disappeared from a prison in the Vladimir region, where he was serving a 30-year sentence on extremism and fraud charges that he had called political retribution for leading the anti-Kremlin opposition of the 2010s. He did not expect to be released during Putin’s lifetime. A former nationalist politician, Navalny helped foment the 2011-12 protests in Russia by campaigning against election fraud and government corruption, investigating Putin’s inner circle and sharing the findings in slick videos that garnered hundreds of millions of views. The high-water mark in his political career came in 2013, when he won 27% of the vote in a Moscow mayoral contest that few believed was free or fair. He remained a thorn in the side of the Kremlin for years, identifying a palace built on the Black Sea for Putin’s personal use, mansions and yachts used by the ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, and a sex worker who linked a top foreign policy official with a well-known oligarch. In 2020, Navalny fell into a coma after a suspected poisoning using novichok by Russia’s FSB security service and was evacuated to Germany for treatment. He recovered and returned to Russia in January 2021, where he was arrested on a parole violation charge and sentenced to his first of several jail terms that would total more than 30 years behind bars. Putin has recently launched a presidential campaign for his fifth term in office. He is already the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin and could surpass him if he runs again for office in 2030, a possibility since he had the constitutional rules on term limits rewritten in 2020. |
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Post by Newsman on Feb 16, 2024 16:32:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that Russia’s penitentiary service was making all checks regarding the death of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but that he had no information about the matter, Reuters reports.
Russia’s Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Alexei Navalny felt unwell after a walk this morning and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to rehabilitate him, but he died. There was no immediate confirmation of Navalny’s death from his team, AFP reports.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been told of the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, state news agency TASS reported on Friday.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:48:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said they had no information about the death of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. She said: We have no confirmation of this yet.
Alexei’s lawyer is now flying to Kharp colony. As soon as we have some information, we will report it.Navalny’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov told the Novaya Gazeta outlet he could not comment on the reports that Navalny died in prison. Solovyov said that a lawyer visited Navalny on Wednesday. “Everything was normal then,” the lawyer said.
Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics said on X/Twitter that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin”. He wrote: Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as the politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin. That’s a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime.
Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters today the death of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “murder”, and said that he believed prison conditions had led to his demise. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a procedural probe into the death, the Investigative Committee said. Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff, said that the statement from the prison service could be interpreted as a “confession” that they deliberately killed Navalny, although his team is yet to verify the information.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:49:25 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:50:03 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:52:15 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that what she called Western accusations about the death of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny were “self-revealing”. In a statement posted on the messenger app Telegram, Zakharova said that forensic results on Navalny’s death were still unavailable but that the West had already reached its own conclusions, Reuters reports. Zakharova did not clarify which accusations she was referring to.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said it is “obvious” that Vladimir Putin was directly behind the death of Alexei Navalny. Speaking in Germany, the Ukrainian leader said the Russian president does not care who dies so long as his position at the head of the state is secure.
Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin wrote in his channel on the Telegram messaging app that he was praying that information about the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny would prove untrue. Nadezhdin wrote: Navalny is one of the most talented and courageous people in Russia.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:53:57 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had died because he was a symbol for a free and democratic Russia, implying that he had been deliberately killed, a sentiment echoed by the finance minister. Baerbock wrote on X: Like no one else, Alexei Navalny was a symbol for a free and democratic Russia. That is precisely the reason he had to die.Finance minister Christian Lindner said: Alexey Navalny fought for a democratic Russia. For that, Putin tortured him to death.
The United States is actively seeking confirmation of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s reported death, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told National Public Radio on Friday. Sullivan said in an interview: If it’s confirmed, it is a terrible tragedy.
Russian medics spent more than half an hour trying to resuscitate jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny before he died on Friday, Interfax reported, citing the local hospital, Reuters reports.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:54:32 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:56:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has said her son was “alive, healthy and happy” when she last saw him on Monday. In a post on Facebook reported by Novaya Gazeta, the independent Russian newspaper published in Latvia since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she wrote: I don’t want to hear any condolences. We saw him in prison on the 12th, in a meeting. He was alive, healthy and happy.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, earlier said (12.19 GMT) Navalny had demonstrated “incredible courage”. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has meanwhile said that reports of Alexei Navalny’s death “underscore the weakness and rot at the heart” of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. -- First and foremost, if these reports are accurate, our hearts go out to his wife and his family. Beyond that, his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this.
We’ll be talking to the many other countries concerned about Alexei Navalny, especially if these reports bear out to be true.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:56:56 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 16:58:19 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Navalny’s wife speaks at the Munich Security ConferenceAlexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has just spoken at the Munich Security Conference. She movingly spoke about the decision she has to take about whether to stay in Munich and speak on stage or go back immediately to her children. She decided to do what her husband would have done and speak at the conference. She said she didn’t know if we should believe the terrible news but said Vladimir Putin is “personally liable for all the horrible things they are doing to my country”. She said that the news had only come from Russian government sources, adding: “for many years we cannot trust Putin and the Putin government. They always lie.” But she said: 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. And this day will happen very soon.She called on the international community to come together and punish “this horrific regime” in Russia.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 17:12:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk has posted a simple but strong message on X. He said that Alexei Navalny would never be forgotten, adding: “And we will never forgive them.”
In his final appearance before his death, Alexei Navalny looked healthy during a video-link court appearance. Speaking from prison, he complained about the frequent fines he had to pay and asked the judge to send him some money ‘as my own is running out thanks to your decisions’.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the United States should show restraint before accusing Russia of Alexei Navalny’s death, TASS reported. The ministry said the US should wait for the results of the forensic medical examination.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 17:15:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Navalny's wife Yulia says Putin 'will be punished'Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s wife, took the stage at the Munich Security Conference. Here’s a longer transcript of what she said. She said: I thought, ‘should I stand here before you or should I go back to my children’? And then I thought, ‘what would have Alexei done in my place’? And I’m sure that he would have been standing here on this stage. I’m don’t know should believe the terrible news we get, the news we get only from the official media, because for many years – and you know all this – we have been in this situation, we cannot believe Putin and his government, they are lying constantly. She added: But if it is the truth, I would like Putin and all his staff – everybody around him, his government, his friends – I want them to know that they will be punished for what they have done with our country, with my family and with my husband.
They will be brought to justice, and this day will come soon.
And would like to call upon all the international community, all the people in the world, we should come together and we should fight against this evil.
We should fight this horrific regime in Russia today. This regime and Vladimir Putin should be personally held responsible for all the atrocities they have committed in our country the last year.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 19:14:11 GMT -5
(The Guardian) There has been some reactions from US politicians although we still haven’t heard from Joe Biden. House foreign affairs committee chairman Michael McCaul issued the following statement regarding reports on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He said: If confirmed, the death of Alexei Navalny is a tragedy. He was a voice for a better Russia amid the corruption and brutality of Putin’s genocidal regime. The Kremlin must be held to account for this outrage.Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, issued a statement from the Munich Security Conference. He said Navalny’s death is “not just a tragedy for the Russia people, but a profound loss felt across the international community”. He said he was “a beacon of hope for millions” inspiring those who “bravely fight for freedom in the face of tyranny”. He said: While the loss of Navalny is a stunning blow for the world, his legacy will undoubtedly endure as a symbol of resilience, courage, and hope.
The need for the international community to stand in solidarity with those who fight for democracy and human rights could not be more urgent.
As we mourn this loss, we cannot shrink from our collective responsibility to hold accountable those who seek to silence dissent through violence and repression. In Alexei Navalny’s memory, let us today recommit ourselves to the pursuit of a world where freedom, justice, and human dignity prevail.Senator Thom Tillis, who is one of the 22 Republicans who voted to approve aid to Ukraine, has also released a statement and has not minced words about Republicans who kowtow to the Kremlin. He said: Navalny laid down his life fighting for the freedom of the country he loved.
Putin is a murderous, paranoid dictator. History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy. Nor will history be kind to America’s leaders who stay silent because they fear backlash from online pundits.
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Post by Webster on Feb 16, 2024 19:55:02 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The UN human rights office urged the Russian authorities to ensure that a credible investigation into the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison was carried out. Spokesperson Liz Throssell said: If someone dies in the custody of the state, the presumption is that the state is responsible – a responsibility that can only be rebutted through an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body.
We urge the Russian authorities to ensure such a credible investigation is carried out.Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a procedural probe into the death, the Investigative Committee said. Throssell said: We call on the Russian authorities to end the persecution of politicians, human rights defenders and journalists, among others.
All those who are held or have been sentenced to various prison terms in relation to the legitimate exercise of their rights, including the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, should be immediately released and all charges against them.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said the death of Alexei Navalny reminds the world what a “monster” Vladimir Putin is. He told CBC Radio: He was such a strong fighter for democracy, for freedoms for the Russian people.
It really shows the extent to which Putin... will crack down on anyone who is fighting for freedom for the Russian people. It is a tragedy and it’s something that has the entire world being reminded of exactly what a monster Putin is.
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