Alexei Navalny’s Widow Yulia Accuses Putin of Killing Her Husband, Vows to Continue His Work

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny, accused the Russian President of killing her husband on Monday. “I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny,” Yulia said in a video titled I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny.

“Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” Navalnaya said. She further added that she would work with the Russian people to fight the Kremlin and create a new Russia.

“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me – half of my heart and half of my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny, and continue to fight for our country,” she said.

Russian prison authorities from the IK-3 penal colony in Russia’s Arctic north, where Navalny has been held since late-2023, reported on Friday that the Russian dissident became unconscious at the prison in the town of Kharp. An ambulance was called but he could not be revived. They said they are trying to establish the cause of death. They said Navalny felt unwell after a walk.

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and his lawyer travelled over the weekend to the notorious jail which was once a gulag where political dissidents were left to die during Stalin’s era, dubbed the “Polar Wolf”, but could not track down his body and returned empty-handed.

Authorities told Navalny’s lawyer and mother that the cause of his death was “sudden death syndrome” – a vague term for a range of cardiac conditions that cause sudden cardiac arrest and death. Russian authorities have so far refused to hand over Navalny’s body to his mother and lawyer, enraging his supports who have said it was a move by the “killers” to “cover their tracks.”

Yulia Navalnaya will meet foreign ministers gathered in Brussels on Monday and will also meet the president of the European Council.