Navalny's widow asks EU not to recognize Russia's election

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, called on the European Union not to recognize Russia's March elections, which are expected to end with another victory for President Vladimir Putin.

Navalnaya used a video message from abroad on Monday to urge supporters to oppose Putin with greater fury than ever and to free Russia from what she characterized as a corrupt elite of “thugs in uniform, thieves and Murderers”.

“Do not recognize these elections,” Navalnaya told European Union foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday (19), according to a transcript provided on Tuesday (20) by a spokeswoman.

“A president who assassinated his main political opponent cannot be legitimate by definition,” Navalnaya said.

Navalnaya accused Putin of killing her husband and said evidence would be provided soon. Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have blamed Putin for the death and warned of the consequences. They gave no proof.

Putin has not yet commented publicly on Navalny's death. The Kremlin has denied involvement and said Western allegations that Putin was responsible were completely unacceptable.

Opinion polls show Putin, 71, has an approval rating above 80% ahead of the March 15-17 presidential election in which three minor candidates challenge him. With the full support of the Russian state, state media and almost no public dissent, he will certainly win.

Opposition politicians say the election only disguises the reality of a corrupt dictatorship. The Kremlin says Putin is by far the most popular politician in Russia.

Video message

Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died suddenly on Friday after a walk in the “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, according to the prison service.

Three days after his death, Navalnaya, a mother of two, alternated between anger and sadness as she signaled in a video statement that she would help lead an opposition to resist Putin, Russia's supreme leader for more than two decades.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday (20) that Putin did not watch his video statement.

Navalnaya said the reason authorities had not yet handed over Navalny's body to his mother Lyudmila – who traveled to the penal colony over the weekend – was because they were waiting for traces of a Novichok nerve agent to leave his corpse. She provided no evidence for her claim.

Navalny's allies quoted a Russian investigator as saying that authorities would need at least 14 days to carry out various chemical tests on his body and therefore could not hand over his corpse yet.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, asked Putin in a video message released on Tuesday (20) to hand over her son's body. “Let me finally see my son,” she said.

Asked about Yulia Navalnaya's claim that Putin had killed her husband, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday (20) that he could not comment on the circumstances.

“We leave this without comment. Of course, these are absolutely unfounded and unpleasant accusations against the head of the Russian state. But given that Yulia Navalnaya was widowed just a few days earlier, I will not comment.”

Peskov said Navalnaya's talk of a nerve agent being used against her husband was unfounded.

“I am not familiar with this statement. But if it contained such words, it is nothing but baseless accusations, because they are not supported by anything, not confirmed,” he said.

Asked about police detaining some people who placed flowers at monuments in Moscow and other cities after Navalny's death, Peskov said police acted in accordance with the law.