Biden fingers Putin for death of Navalny, fiercest foe of Russia’s president
Russian authorities say the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny has died in prison. An anticorruption campaigner, he rose to become the most prominent critic of President Vladimir V. Putin.
President Biden said that there was “no doubt” that President Vladimir V. Putin’s government was behind the death of Aleksei A. Navalny, the outspoken dissident who Russian authorities said had died at a remote Arctic prison on Friday.
“Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” Mr. Biden said at a White House news conference, while acknowledging that the United States still did not know details of what happened. “What has happened to Navalny is even more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled.”
Mr. Navalny’s death would leave the country without its most prominent opposition voice at a time when Mr. Putin has amassed near-total power, invaded neighboring Ukraine and drawn the sharpest divisions with U.S.-led Western allies since the end of the Cold War.
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Mr. Navalny, 47, had lost consciousness and died after taking a walk on Friday in the Arctic prison where he was moved late last year. “All necessary resuscitation measures were taken, which did not lead to positive results,” the statement said.
The news shocked world leaders, although Western officials and many of Mr. Navalny’s supporters expressed skepticism about the Russian authorities’ statements. Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said in a live broadcast that his team could not immediately confirm his death but believed in all likelihood he was dead.
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President Biden praised Mr. Navalny’s activism and his courage in returning to Russia after being poisoned in 2020. “Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth,” Mr. Biden said. He also repeated denunciations of former President Donald J. Trump, who said recently that he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies that do not spend enough on their militaries, calling Mr. Trump’s comments “dangerous” and “outrageous.”
Mr. Putin did not immediately comment on the reports. His spokesman said that Mr. Navalny’s death had been reported to Mr. Putin, according to the Tass state news service. Shortly after the announcement, Russian television showed Mr. Putin speaking with students and industrial workers in the Ural Mountains, where he was asked about topics like robotics, government subsidies and engineering schools. He did not mention Mr. Navalny.
Yulia Navalnaya, Mr. Navalny’s wife, made a dramatic appearance at the Munich Security Conference, telling an audience of world leaders that while no one could trust Mr. Putin’s government, if her husband was dead, “they will be brought to justice.”
Mr. Navalny had been serving multiple prison sentences — on what supporters said were fabricated charges — that would likely have kept him locked up until at least 2031. In December, he disappeared for three weeks as the Russian authorities transferred him to a remote penal colony in the Arctic. He was last seen publicly on Thursday, when he appeared via video link in a court hearing.
Mr. Navalny, a former real estate lawyer, rose to prominence as an anticorruption activist. His death would deal a major blow to Russia’s marginalized opposition movement, already weakened by repression, internal rivalries and wartime nationalism.
New York Times
