What did Alexei Navalny’s wife say after he was killed in Russia?

Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critic, Alexei Navalny, has died in prison just days after he was seen in a video in apparently good health. The 47-year-old was among Putin’s few outright opponents in Russia, for which he was hit with a 30-year sentence for extremism and fraud that he’d described as “political retribution” from the Kremlin. 19 years of his sentence were to be served under a “special regime,” which involved Navalny being moved to a nightmarish jail 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle. A spokesman for the federal penitentiary services for the region said Navalny “felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness. All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not yield positive results. The paramedics confirmed the death of the convict.” 

Wow, it sure is weird how everyone who stands up to Putin winds up dead, be it from an unexplained plane crash, a random heart attack, or from clumsily falling out of a window. Suffice it to say, no one is buying that this death is from natural causes for even a second, least of all Navalny’s wife, Yulia.

What was Yulia Navalny’s message to Putin following her husband’s death?

Speaking in Munich, Yulia vowed that justice will be done:

“I don’t know whether to believe the terrible news that we’ve received only from official media … we cannot believe Putin and his government. But if it is true, then I would like Putin, his staff, his friends, his government to know that they will be punished for what they’ve done with our country, my family and my husband. They will be brought to justice, and that day will come very soon.”

Other Navalny allies have been similarly straightforward. Associate Leonard Volkov said, “If this is true, then it’s not ‘Navalny died’, but ‘Putin killed Navalny.’” Dmitri Muratov, editor of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, called it outright “murder” and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said it’s “obvious” that Putin killed Navalny. German finance minister Christian Lindner was even more plain with his words: “Alexei Navalny fought for a democratic Russia. For that, Putin tortured him to death.”

Will Putin actually offer any explanation for Navalny’s death or, god forbid, suffer any consequences? We shall see, but this is only going to spark yet more internal and external strife within Russia.