The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accused Vladamir Putin of poisoning her husband with novichok and hiding his body until the nerve agent traces leave his body.
In a video address on Monday, Yulia Navalnaya vowed to expose those she believes are responsible for her husband’s death and pledged to continue her husband’s work.
“I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Ms Navalnaya said in a video message entitled ‘I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny’. Vladimir Putin killed my husband.
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me – half of my heart and half of my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny, continue to fight for our country.
“I urge you to stand next to me,” Ms Navalnaya – who has two children with Mr Navalny – said. “I ask you to share the rage with me. Rage, anger, hatred towards those who dared to kill our future.”
Navalnaya also accused the Russian authorities of hiding Navalny’s body and of waiting for traces of the Novichok nerve agent to disappear from his body.
“We know exactly why Putin killed Alexei three days ago,” she said. “We will tell you about it soon. We will definitely find out who exactly carried out this crime and how exactly. We will name the names and show the faces.”
It is still unclear what has happened to Mr Navalny’s body. Mr Navalny’s mother and his lawyer has turned up at the Salekhard morgue on Saturday, where they had been told his body was, to find that it was closed and empty.
At the time, Mr Navalny’s spokesperson claimed that the Russian authorities were deliberately withholding his body to “cover traces” of his murder.
On Sunday, the independent formerly Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, citing an unnamed source, claimed Navalny’s body had been delivered to the Salekhard District Clinical Hospital and was seen with bruises.
“They also said he had a bruise on his chest – the kind that comes from indirect cardiac massage,” the source said, also claiming that the injuries were consistent with some kind of seizure.
The Kremlin has denied having any involvement in Navalny’s death and Russian authorities have told his team that they would not release his body until investigations into his death were complete, which could take weeks.
More than 12,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government asking for the politician’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, the prominent rights group OVD-Info said on Sunday.
Navalny was Putin’s most visible and prominent critic and died behind bars while serving a 19 year-prison sentence, it was reported on Friday.
The 47 year-old had recently been moved from his former prison in central Russia to a jail above the Arctic Circle. His supporters and much of the international community believe his charges were trumped up in order to silence him.
Russia’s prison service said Navalny had died after he “felt unwell” after a walk on Friday, and “almost immediately lost consciousness”. It said that medical staff had been called, but that they were unable to resuscitate Navalny and added that the cause of death was being established.
Navalny’s death comes as Russia prepares to hold a presidential vote in March which is expected to hand Mr Putin a fifth term as president.