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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.
Critics like Alexei Navalny need support from the West against the ‘monster’ Vladimir Putin, Alexander Litvinenko’s widow has said
(Getty)
Russia’s prison agency announced on Friday that 47-year-old Navalny had died in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. His death sparked accusations around the world that he had been killed, which have been fiercely rejected by the Kremlin.
Ms Litvinenko branded Putin a “monster” and called on the West to help Russian opposition figures who are still alive.
She told Sky News: “I am more thinking about people living in Russia, they have more dangerous lives, but they are still working on the outside.
“They are in need of support, and we are living here in the West, we need to support these people in Russia. We need to do everything to save the lives of these people, otherwise Putin’s regime will achieve its result.”
Russia’s prison agency announced on Friday that Alexei Navalny had died in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism
(AP)
Ms Litvinenko told of her shock and anger upon hearing the news of Mr Navalny’s death, and accused Putin of “killing the most prominent politician and the hope of a new Russia”. Stating that she had “no doubt” who could be responsible for Mr Navalny’s death, she said: “You can’t expect anything else from Putin.”
Mr Navalny’s team accused authorities of deliberately hiding his body to “cover traces” of what they claim is a clear act of murder, while many world leaders blamed Putin and his government for the Russian opposition leader’s death.
Mr Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said that the Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, informed his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, that the cause of her son’s death remained unknown and that the official probe had been extended.
“They lie, buy time for themselves and do not even hide it,” Ms Yarmysh posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Alexander Litvinenko, a prominent Putin critic, died in 2006 after becoming violently ill in London having drunk tea laced with radioactive polonium-210
( 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
She added that Mr Navalny’s mother and lawyers were on Monday morning denied access to the morgue in Salekhard where his body was believed to be kept. The staff did not answer when they asked if the body was there, Yarmysh said.
Mr Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its most well-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. It dealt a devastating blow to many Russians, who had seen Navalny as a hope for political change following his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin.
