Category Archives: Alexei Navalny

Belarusian held in Poland suspected of ordering hammer attack on Navalny ally

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Two Polish citizens detained earlier on suspicion of attacking Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania

A Belarusian national has been detained in Poland on suspicion of ordering the attack on a top Russian opposition leader, Leonid Volkov, on Moscow’s behalf, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has announced.

Volkov, a close aide of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was briefly admitted to hospital last month after he was ambushed and attacked outside his house in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The assailant smashed open Volkov’s car window and repeatedly struck him with a hammer, breaking Volkov’s left arm and damaging his left leg before fleeing the scene.

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Russian police detain journalist who filmed last video of Alexei Navalny alive

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Rights groups say Antonina Favorskaya is accused of links to Alexei Navalny’s ‘extremist organisation’ and is one of six journalists held this month

A journalist who filmed the last video of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before he died, Antonina Favorskaya, has been detained by authorities.

Favorskaya covered the trials of Navalny for several years and media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday she was one of six journalists across the country held this month.

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Putin claims he agreed to prisoner swap involving Navalny before his death

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Re-elected Russian president makes first public comment on death of opposition leader, which he calls ‘sad event’

Vladimir Putin has claimed he had agreed to a prisoner swap involving Alexei Navalny before the opposition leader’s sudden death in an Arctic prison last month.

Speaking in central Moscow after early results indicated he had won Russia’s presidential election in a landslide, Putin said unnamed people made an offer to release Navalny in a swap deal with the west a few days before he died.

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Lithuania blames Putin for Vilnius hammer attack on Navalny aide

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Baltic country’s state security says assault on Leonid Volkov was probably to stop Russian opposition influencing election

Lithuania has blamed Moscow for the bloody hammer attack on a longtime aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny outside his home in Vilnius.

Leonid Volkov, 43, was in hospital briefly after he was attacked with a hammer by an unknown assailant on Tuesday night in the Lithuanian capital.

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Navalny ally Leonid Volkov vows to continue fight against Putin after hammer attack in Vilnius

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‘We will not give up,’ Volkov says in video after being discharged from hospital following attack in Lithuania that left him covered in blood

Leonid Volkov, a longtime aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has vowed to continue the struggle against Russian President Vladimir Putin after being attacked with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania.

“We will work and we will not give up,” he said in a video clip posted on Telegram early on Wednesday, claiming that the attack that left him with a broken arm was a “characteristic bandit hello” from Putin’s henchmen.

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‘I considered him a decent person’: how Putin’s puppets help to dupe Russia’s voters

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As Russians prepare to give the president another six-year term this week, an ex-rival has gone from protest candidate to grotesque war hawk

Two election cycles ago, in 2012, Sergei Mironov was loudly playing the role of opposition to Russia’s ruling party, wearing the white ribbon of the protest movement in the State Duma and claiming his run against Vladimir Putin was “serious”.

If made president, he said, he would even appoint the now deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the head of Russia’s accounts chamber as an anti-corruption measure.

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Yulia Navalnaya asks Russians to join anti-Putin polling station protest

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Alexei Navalny’s widow urges supporters to arrive en masse at midday for presidential election to overwhelm polling stations

The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called for people to protest against Vladimir Putin at polling booths in the forthcoming presidential election.

Yulia Navalnaya urged her supporters to protest against Putin by voting en masse at noon local time in the 17 March election, forming large crowds and overwhelming polling stations.

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Alexei Navalny’s mother visits grave a day after Moscow funeral

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Other mourners lay flowers as police maintain presence at cemetery where opposition leader was buried

The mother of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has visited his grave, a day after thousands of Russians risked arrest to pay tribute to the anti-corruption campaigner at his funeral.

Navalny, who was Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic for more than a decade, died last month in a prison colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism” charges largely regarded as retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin.

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Alexei Navalny funeral draws thousands to heavily policed Moscow church

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Western diplomats attend as chanting crowd pays tribute to opposition leader who died in Arctic penal colony

• Alexei Navalny funeral – latest updates

• Funeral of Alexei Navalny – in pictures

Defying the Kremlin’s warning of arrests, thousands of mourners have gathered in Moscow to bid farewell to the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, two weeks after Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic died in an Arctic prison.

Crowds of people chanted “Putin is a murderer” and “No to war” as they marched, under heavy police presence, to the Borisovsky cemetery where Navalny, 47, was lowered into the ground on Friday to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

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31,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since Russia invaded, Zelenskiy says – as it happened

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Ukraine president makes announcement during news conference in Kyiv

Ukraine expects to receive $11.8 billion in economic support this year from the United States, its prime minister said on Sunday.

Denys Shmyhal said during a televised conference in Kyiv that he was hopeful that US lawmakers would approve long-awaited economic and military aid.

In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern grouping of troops improved the situation along the front line and defeated formations of the 22nd, 28th and 92nd mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Klishchiivka, Dyleyevka and Kurdiumivka.

In the Avdiivka direction, units of the Centre group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions, and also defeated manpower and equipment of the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 107th Air Defence Brigade.

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Alexei Navalny’s body given to mother by Russian authorities

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Remains handed to Lyudmila Navalnaya nine days after Putin critic’s death in Arctic prison, say supporters

The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother nine days after he died in an Arctic prison, his spokesperson announced on Saturday.

In a post on X, Kira Yarmysh thanked “all those who had demanded” the return of his body, but added that she did not know if the authorities would allow a public funeral to be held.

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Navalny’s body released to his mother, says spokesperson

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Spokesperson for the Russian opposition politician, who died in prison last week, said funeral arrangements are still to be determined

King Charles III praises the “determination and strength” of the Ukrainian people in a message marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The monarch said he was “greatly encouraged” by the UK’s efforts to support Ukraine and commended their “true valour”. He has said:

The determination and strength of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire, as the unprovoked attack on their land, their lives and livelihoods enters a third, tragic, year.

Despite the tremendous hardship and pain inflicted upon them, Ukrainians continue to show the heroism with which the world associates them so closely.

Right now, it looks as though Russia will not take part in a first round of the conference.

We’re in the process of starting off with a very broad alliance consisting of the BRICS countries, countries from the Arab world, as well as from the global south.

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US to impose sanctions on 500 Russia-linked targets to mark Ukraine war anniversary

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Military industrial complex and companies aiding Moscow in third countries will be targeted, treasury says

The US will impose sanctions on more than 500 targets on Friday in action marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deputy US treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo has said.

The action, taken in partnership with other countries, will target Russia’s military industrial complex and companies in third countries that facilitate Russia’s access to goods it wants, Adeyemo told Reuters news agency, as Washington seeks to hold Russia to account over the war and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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Biden met with Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya, White House says

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US to impose over 500 new sanctions on Russia after Navalny, main opposition leader to Putin, died after being imprisoned by Kremlin

Joe Biden met with Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and the activist’s daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, in California on Thursday.

Navalny, the main opposition leader to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, died in an Arctic penal colony last Friday after being imprisoned by the Kremlin.

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Navalny’s mother shown body and ‘blackmailed by authorities’ over funeral

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Lyudmila Navalnaya says she was told to agree to secret burial as Kremlin appears to fear funeral turning into political action

Alexei Navalny’s mother has said she has been shown the body of her son but that the authorities were “blackmailing” her into burying him in a secret ceremony without mourners.

In a video message on Thursday, Lyudmila Navalnaya said she was driven to a morgue on Wednesday evening where authorities showed her the body.

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Russia-Ukraine war: head of Germany’s far-right AfD condemns ‘theatrics’ over Navalny’s death – as it happened

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Tino Chrupalla says it is ‘unbearable’ the extent to which Putin has been blamed, with similar comments from Italian deputy PM Matteo Salvini

The Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of Donald Trump, has been added to a list of “terrorists and extremists” kept by Russia’s state financial monitoring agency.

Tass, the state-run news agency, first reported the move by Rosfinmonitoring, which allows authorities to freeze Russian bank accounts, though in Graham’s case is likely to be chiefly symbolic.

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Jailed Russian activist says he fears for his life after death of Navalny

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Ilya Yashin says Vladimir Putin ordered murder of Alexei Navalny, as Russian state opens new criminal case against latter’s brother

A jailed member of Russia’s opposition has said he fears for his life after the death of Alexei Navalny, as the Putin critic’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, demanded the Kremlin release his body so he can be “buried with dignity”.

Yet as the appeals came, the Russian state opened a new criminal case on Tuesday against Navalny’s brother, Oleg, signalling it would continue the pressure on his family and supporters as they seek to mourn the late opposition leader.

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Yulia Navalnaya vows to continue husband Alexei’s fight and says Putin killed him

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Widow of Alexei Navalny says she wants to ‘build a free Russia’ and says she will reveal why ‘Putin killed him’

Yulia Navalnaya has published a video address in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s political work and called on Russians to rally around her as Alexei Navalny’s family were told they would not get access to his body for another two weeks.

“I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work … I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Navalnaya said in a powerful nine-minute video published on social media.

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UK minister rules out swap for Briton Vladimir Kara-Murza jailed in Russia

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Foreign Office says it will not trade Putin opponent for spies in jail in Britain, despite fears for his life after Navalny’s death

A Foreign Office minister has ruled out a prisoner swap for the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British citizen, who MPs have expressed concern about after the death of Alexei Navalny.

Kara-Murza’s wife was now adamant that she wanted everything to be done to get her her husband out of Russia, said the Conservative backbencher Bob Seely, who urged the government to countenance swapping imprisoned spies for the pro-democracy activist who was now the most high-profile Russian political prisoner.

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Trump acknowledges Navalny’s death days later, without mentioning Putin

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Ex-president links Russian opposition leader’s death to his own political grievances after criticism from Haley

Donald Trump has offered a belated acknowledgement of the purportedly sudden death of Alexei Navalny, three days after the Russian opposition leader collapsed in one of Russia’s penal colonies. But Trump failed to join with – or acknowledge – international outrage at Navalny’s political nemesis, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network. The former US president and presumptive Republican White House nominee added: “It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”

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