WASHINGTON — Just hours after Russia reported the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, took the stage at a security conference in Germany where many world leaders had gathered — and said she considered canceling her appearance.
“But then I thought what Alexei would do in my place. And I’m sure he would be here,” she said, while noting that she was not even sure if she could believe the news coming from official Russian sources.
“But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband. And this day will come very soon.”
Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, has reportedly died in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, according to Russia’s prison agency. He was 47.
The stunning news of Navalny’s death comes less than a month before an election that will give Putin another six years in power. It brought renewed criticism of the Kremlin leader who has cracked down on all opposition at home.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived but paramedics failed to revive him.
"And I want to call on the entire world community, all the people in this room all over the world, so that we unite together and defeat this evil, defeat the horrific regime that is now in Russia," Yulia Navalnaya added in her comments. "Both this regime and Vladimir Putin must bear personal responsibility for all those terrible things they are doing to my country, to our country, Russia in recent years."
Shortly after the death was reported, the Russian SOTA social media channel shared footage of the opposition politician — reportedly in court Thursday — laughing and joking with the judge via video link.
Navalny was moved in December from a prison in central Russia to a “special regime” penal colony — the highest security level for prisons.
His allies decried the transfer to a colony, in a region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, as yet another attempt to force Navalny into silence.
