Zelenskyy on Navalny's murder: Where is Russia's public response?

Sunday, 25 February 2024, 19:04

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he believes the Russian public reaction to the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian detention centre was largely missing.

Source: President Zelenskyy during the press conference following the Ukraine.Year 2024 conference

Quote from Zelenskyy: "As for the Russians, what do I have to talk to them about? They had one opposition leader, and they killed him. We have to talk to them now, but how? The Kremlin killed [Navalny]. Where is the public response? He is one of them.

I recently talked to a US journalist about this. He also asked me about it, but why was he asking me? Ask those people, he was their compatriot!

They don’t care…

Judging by the Kremlin’s messages, they all talk about 2030. The year until which [Russian President Vladimir Putin] will remain in power."

Background:

  • On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia.
  • Alexei Navalny had been imprisoned since early 2021. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to 19 years in prison in a high-security prison for "extremism" in August 2023.
  • On the morning of 19 February,  Lyudmila Navalnaya arrived at the morgue in the town of Salekhard where the body of her son, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, was allegedly kept. Still, neither she nor her lawyers were allowed in. On 23 February, Lyudmila Navalnaya said that the prison administration threatened to bury her son's body at the prison cemetery if she did not agree to a secret, quiet burial.
  • On 24 February, Russia’s prison employees finally handed over Navalny’s body to his mother.

Support UP or become our patron!