Ruthless Vladimir Putin smirks as Biden says tyrant IS responsible for ‘murder’ of his No1 enemy Alexei Navalny
Scroll down to see a list of the Kremlin critics who are thought to have been killed by Putin
TYRANT Vladimir Putin was snapped smirking today as Joe Biden claimed he was responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny.
The slimy dictator grinned on a visit in Russia as countless Kremlin foes fiercely slammed his number one enemy’s reported death as a brutal act of murder.
Prison officials at the “Polar Wolf” Colony where Navalny was locked up on bogus charges today claimed that he died after collapsing on a walk.
Navalny, Putin’s leading domestic critic in Russia, had bravely challenged the tyrant’s rule and his horrific war in Ukraine.
And many of his supporters expressed fears that he would be assassinated while behind bars serving a 19-year sentence.
His beloved wife Yulia swore today that the dictator would be held accountable if the shocking reports are true.
But Putin appeared sickeningly cheerful as he greeted people mere hours later at a public event.
In a press conference, US President Biden had his say on the death of Navalny.
He said: “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
“What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality,” Biden continued.
“Putin does not only target the citizens of other countries. He also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people.”
Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics raged on X today that Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin”.
And Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy raged: “Obviously, Putin killed him”.
Defiant Russians have lined the streets in Moscow to pay tribute to Navalny after the bombshell reports.
Powerful pictures showed dozens of people crowded together holding up photographs of the Kremlin critic and emotional signs.
Navalny, one of Putin’s greatest enemies, was locked away on trumped-up charges after a sham trial and has been vocal about his fears of assassination.
He was first picked up by Vlad’s brutal police in 2021 after returning to Russia following an assassination attempt.
In total he spent 308 days banged up – and there were reports that a sadistic Putin even demanded to see live footage of the 47-year-old undergoing punishment and being humiliated by guards.
Navalny also went missing from a hellish Russian jail last year – and his supporters warned at the time that he could be executed.
He was later found in one of the toughest prisons in the country in Siberia – known as “the Polar Wolf” colony.
What we know so far…
- Officials at the ‘Polar Wolf’ jail where Navalny was held claim he collapsed during a walk outside and died today
- Ukraine’s Zelensky and Latvian president Rinkevics claim Putin murdered the Kremlin critic
- The dad-of-two, aged just 47, had sent his wife a heartfelt Valentine’s letter days before his reported death
- His mum Lyudmila said she saw Navalny a few days ago and he seemed healthy and cheerful
- Navalny was last pictured yesterday appearing in court via video link – he looked thin and had a shaved head
- The Kremlin enemy had spent 308 days locked up in Russia on trumped-up charges – including for extremism and terrorism
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Putin should be ‘held accountable’
- Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said she has had no official confirmation of his death – but a lawyer is investigating
Prison chiefs said his death was confirmed at 2.17pm local time but confusion has clouded the shock news.
Navalny’s legal team had received no formal confirmation of his death and his frantic family are still seeking proof that the reports are not more Kremlin lies.
His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said she has had no confirmation of his death – but his lawyer is dashing to the jail to find out more.
She said: “The [prison service] in the Yamalo-Nenets region is spreading the news about the death of Alexei Navalny.
“We don’t have any confirmation of this yet.”
Wife and mum two their two children Yulia said in front of a sea of world leaders at the Munich Security Conference today: “I don’t know whether to believe or not this terrible news that we only receive from Russian government sources.
Putin's opponents die in mysterious circumstances
By Nick Parker
TRAGIC Navalny is the latest in a long line of Putin opponents and rivals to die in mysterious circumstances.
His death came just six months after the Russian tyrant’s last public challenger – Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin – died in a fireball jet smash believed to have been caused by a bomb.
Warlord Prigozhin’s days were numbered after he launched a failed coup in which his troops turned on Moscow – and Putin is thought to have directly ordered the air “accident.”
Scores of political opponents, oligarchs and insubordinate business chiefs have met similar suspicious fates in recent years as paranoid Putin shored up his power base.
They include politician Boris Nemtsov, killed with six shots in the back and head in February 2015 on a Moscow bridge; top Russian journalist and Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya who was shot dead in an elevator in June 2014 and Alexander Litvinenko who died in agony in London after being poisoned with radioactive polonium tea in 2006.
Putin agents also attempted to kill Russian turncoat Sergei Skripal with Novichok after he fell foul of the Kremlin regime and fled to Salisbury, Wilts.
“For many years we cannot trust Putin and the Putin government. They always lie.
“But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family. And this day will happen very soon.
“I want to call on the international community and all people to unite and defeat this evil.”
Exiled Russian politician Dmitry Gudkov has fumed that even if Putin did not have Navalny assassinated – his death would still be the tyrant’s fault.
“Even if Alexey died from ‘natural’ causes, they were caused by his poisoning and further prison torture. Blood is on Putin,” he fumed.
A statement from prison officials today read: “On February 16, 2024, in correctional colony No. 3, convict Navalny A.A. felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness.”
An ambulance reached the brutal jail in just seven minutes – getting to Navalny’s side in another two, Interfax reported.
“The doctors who arrived at the scene continued the resuscitation measures that were already being provided by the penal colony’s doctors,” said the local hospital.
“And they spent more than half an hour. However, the patient died.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron echoed comments made by Navalny’s wife today and said: “Putin’s Russia imprisoned him, trumped up charges against him, poisoned him, sent him to an arctic penal colony, and now he’s tragically died.
“We should hold Putin accountable for this. And no one should be in any doubt about the dreadful nature of Putin’s regime in Russia after what has just happened.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a full investigation into the reported death.
“The Secretary-General is shocked by the reported death in detention of opposition figure Alexei Navalny,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Guterres called “for a full, credible and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Navalny’s reported death in custody,” Dujarric added.
The life of Alexei Navalny, Putin's biggest critic
HERE is a timeline that shows how the leader of the opposition went from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin's biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison - and possibly an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
Biden previously warned that the consequences for Russia would be “devastating” if Navalny died in prison.
In his press conference today, Biden said Navalny was “a powerful voice for the truth”.
He said: “Like millions of people around the world I’m literally both not surprised and outraged by the news.
“He bravely stood up to the corruption the violence and all of the bad things the Putin government was doing.
“In response, Putin had him prisoned he had him arrested. He sentenced him to prison he was held in isolation – even all that didn’t stop him from calling out Putin’s lies.
“Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth.”
Calling on Congress to support Ukraine’s war effort, Biden continued: “This tragedy reminds us of the stakes of this moment.
“We have to provide the funding so Ukraine can keep defending itself against Putin’s vicious onslaughts and war crimes.
“You know, there was a bipartisan Senate vote that passed overwhelmingly to fund Ukraine. History is watching the House of Representatives.
“A failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.
“It’s going to go down in the pages of history, it really is, it’s consequential.
“And the clock is ticking and this has to happen, we have to help now.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said if the claims of his death are true, it serves as further evidence of Putin’s brutality.
He was seen for the last time yesterday in court – via video link.
His head was shaved and he looked thin – but appeared to be keeping positive and even made some jokes.
Former Director of the CIA David Petraeus told Times Radio the news is a “tragedy” and described him as “the most courageous, most significant opponent of Vladimir Putin”.
The head of Navalny’s FBK party Maria Pevchikh had warned last year: “We are worried for his life.
“He’s in the hands of the very same people who tried to kill him before.
“If they once got an authorisation to murder Navalny, do they have another one now or is the last one still valid. Navalny’s life is constantly at a high risk.”
Navalny was poisoned by the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in August 2020, which he claimed was an assassination attempt by the Kremlin.
He was then thrown into prison for 19 years on trumped-up charges of extremism and fraud.
The Kremlin critic has previously warned of Putin’s desperation to silence him, after his team published a list of 200 oligarchs accused of being “directly responsible for the aggressive war launched against Ukraine.”
And a disturbing video interview earlier this year with him revealed he was suffering from mystery stomach aches, seizures and had lost 18lbs in less than a month – sparking fears of a slow poisoning.
