Biden says Putin and 'his thugs' responsible for Navalny's death
Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin is wholly responsible for the death in a Russian jail of Alexei Navalny.
Speaking at the White House, in his first comments following news that one of the Russian leader’s most vocal critics was dead, the US president said “like millions of people around the world”, he was “literally not surprised and outraged by the reported death of Alexei Navalny”
Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.
Putin is responsible. What has happened and evolving is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world [that] Putin does not only target citizens of other countries, as we’ve seen in what’s going on in Ukraine right now, he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people.
In questions from reporters following his address, Biden said the US was still awaiting formal confirmation of the Russian opposition leader’s death, but had no reason to doubt it.
Asked if he thought it was “an assassination”, Biden said:
The answer is we don’t know exactly what happened. But there is no doubt that the death of Navalny is a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did.
We’re closing our live coverage now of events following Friday’s death in Russia of the opposition leader and pro-democracy activist Alexei Navalny, one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics who was serving a lengthy prison term in an Arctic penal colony.
Russian prison authorities said Navalny, who was 47, collapsed and died suddenly after “a walk”, despite him appearing gaunt but otherwise in good health and joking during an online court appearance only hours before.
People leave flowers during a vigil for Alexei Navalny at the Russian embassy in Munich, Germany. Dozens have been arrested, observers say. Photograph: Johannes Simon/Getty Images
Joe Bidenled a wave of global outrage, the US president blaming Navalny’s death on Putin “and his thugs”. The European Union said Navalny was “slowly murdered” by the Putin regime; and the UK government summoned Russian embassy staff and demanded a full and transparent investigation.
Meanwhile, dozens of protestors were arrested at vigils and other celebrations of Navalny’s life in numerous Russian cities, human rights observers said.
Thanks for joining us today. You can read Shaun Walker’s analysis of Alexei Navalny’s death here, and please also take a read of Pjotr Sauer’s report on the dissident’s years-long persecution here:
Human rights observers report at least 73 arrests by authorities across Russia at vigils and other commemorations.
Dmitry Anisimov, spokesperson for OVD-Info, told CNN on Friday that it is likely even more people have been detained. The group reported detentions in numerous Russian cities, including Murmansk, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod and St Petersburg.
Russian official issued a warning earlier on Friday that any demonstrations in Moscow were not authorized, and anybody taking part was liable to arrest.
Video filmed on Friday evening showed police in the capital ripping placards away from attendees, and arresting at least one person.
Here’s another look at some video we posted earlier:
Russia: activist detained seconds after attempting protest at Navalny commemoration – video
Joe Biden has followed up his earlier comments from the White House with a tweet sending his sympathies to those in Alexei Navalny’s wider orbit.
“Today, I send my deepest condolences to Aleksey Navalny’s staff and supporters who will continue his work, despite Putin’s attempts to stamp out opposition. And above all, to his family who shared Aleksey’s dream of a better future for Russia,” the US president wrote.
“May God bless Aleksey Navalny.”
Today, I send my deepest condolences to Aleksey Navalny's staff and supporters who will continue his work, despite Putin’s attempts to stamp out opposition.
And above all, to his family who shared Aleksey's dream of a better future for Russia.
The UK government said Friday it had “summoned the Russian Embassy”, as protestors gathered outside the building in central London to protest Alexei Navalny’s death.
In a statement reported by the Press Association, the Foreign Office said the government stood with Navalny’s “family, friends, colleagues and supporters”, and called the opposition leader “a man of great courage and iron will”:
The Russian authorities saw Mr Navalny as a threat. Many Russian citizens felt he gave them a voice.
In recent years, authorities imprisoned him on fabricated charges, poisoned him with a banned nerve agent, and sent him to an Arctic penal colony. No-one should doubt the brutal nature of the Russian system. His death must be investigated fully and transparently.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office today summoned the Russian Embassy to make clear that we hold the Russian authorities fully responsible.
Angry protesters at the embassy on Friday night called for the Kremlin to be held accountable.
Those who gathered laid floral tributes, chanted “Putin is a killer”, held banners with messages including “Don’t give up” and directed cellphone lights at the embassy’s windows.
Protesters stage a demonstration opposite the Russian embassy in central London. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
Two senior US senators, one a Democrat and the other Republican, want part of a street near the Russian ambassador’s Washington DC residence to be renamed Alexei Navalny Way.
Dick Durbin, the Democratic party’s Senate majority whip from Illinois, joined the Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy in introducing legislation for the switch.
In a statement, Cassidy said:
Renaming the street near the Russian Ambassador’s residence Navalny Way memorializes his fight for freedom and democracy. When Russians visit our nation’s capital, they will remember his unflinching opposition to Putin’s dictatorial control.
Durbin had been a vocal advocate for Navalny’s release, as well as that of another jailed Russian opposition leader, the journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year sentence, and whose whereabouts last month were unknown.
He said in the statement:
There’s more blood on Putin’s hands today. Putin has tried to silence anyone in Russia who might dissent from his strategy, anyone who might have the audacity to suggest there should be democracy or freedom in that country.
He sent one of his harshest critics, Alexei Navalny, to prison and, tragically, to his death. A fellow Russian patriot and friend of mine, Vladimir Kara-Murza, is also languishing in one of Putin’s gulags.
May Alexei’s memory and his efforts for a free Russia never be forgotten.
More politicians are speaking out following the death of the Russian opposition leader and activist Alexei Navalny.
The former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Putin was responsible for Navalny’s death.
“It was so tragic to hear that he has been killed … there’s no doubt in my mind … [that] his death is a result of Putin’s brutality,” Clinton said.
“It is a tragedy for Russia that someone who was willing to stand up and speak out and really represent a different future for Russia, should be killed,” she added.
“There’s no doubt in my mind… [that] his death is a result of Putin’s brutality.” Former Secretary of State @HillaryClinton tells me that Alexey Navalny’s death “is a tragedy for Russia,” and places the blame firmly at Putin’s door. pic.twitter.com/aXLRxJfN5F
Clinton’s latest comments come after she posted a tribute to Navalny and shared her condolences with “Navalny’s family and friends, to his staff, and to the people of Russia”.
“Listen, I've got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.” - Alexei Navalny
My deepest condolences to Alexei Navalny’s family and friends, to his staff, and to the people of Russia.
'Putin is a murderer', says Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russians who vote for Putin in elections next month are voting for a “murderer”, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy’s comments come after the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“The events tell [us] that Putin is a murderer and this is not rhetoric,” Zelenskiy said in a press conference in Paris on Friday, referring to Navalny’s death.
“And this is not a signal. It is absolutely obvious he is a murderer and there are no secrets [here].”
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said Russia must share details on the death of activist and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Reuters reported.
Macron made the latest remarks about Navalny during a joint press conference with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Paris after Zelenskiy signed a security pact with France on Friday.
During the press conference, Macron said that the death of Navalny shows the “weakness of the Kremlin and their fear of all opponents”.
Macron added that Russia has entered a new phase of aggression and must explain escalations, including reports of planned nuclear activities in space, Reuters further reported.
It’s 11pm in Moscow, 8pm in London and 3pm in Washington DC. Here’s a look at the day’s developments following the death in a Russian prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Joe Biden blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin “and his thugs” for Navalny’s death in an address from the White House. “Make no mistake, Putin is responsible. What has happened and evolving is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world, that Putin does not only target citizens of other countries … he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people,” the US president said.
Biden also reiterated his support for Nato in the wake of Navalny’s death, and slammed former president Donald Trump for comments calling on Russia to attack any alliance member he felt wasn’t paying its dues. “This is an outrageous thing for a [former] president to say. I can’t fathom it. As long as I’m president, America stands by our sacred commitment to our Nato allies,” he said.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, said reports of his death are “most likely true”, adding that his attorneys and relatives would travel to Siberia on Saturday to the penal colony where he died. “Before [the attorney arrives] we do not have any verification, so we can not officially confirm or deny statements by all the Kremlin agencies that Alexei Navalny is dead. But really, we all understand full well that if [Russian press official Dmitri] Peskov is commenting and Putin and the rest - this cannot be an accident or a mistake. So, most likely it’s all true,” she said.
The European Union says it will do whatever it can to hold Russia, and Putin, accountable. Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the EU president and vice-president, said in a joint statement: “He was slowly murdered by President Putin and his regime, who fear nothing more than dissent from their own people. We will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account.”
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke at the Munich Security Conference to call on the international community to come together and punish “this horrific regime” in Russia, and Putin, who she said was personally responsible for her husband’s death. “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,” she said.
A wave of international outrage greeted the news, with the UK and US leading the condemnation. The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, said Russia, under Putin, “fabricated charges … poisoned him, sent him to an Arctic penal colony”. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Munich, said reports of Navalny’s death “underscore the weakness and rot at the heart” of the Putin regime.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the US should show restraint before accusing the country of causing Navalny’s death. Moscow’s Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying the US needed to wait for the results of the forensic medical examination.
Here is a selection of images from around the world sent to us over the news wires following the death in Russia of opposition leader Alexei Navalny:
People lay flowers and light candles in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
A woman holds up a placard reading ‘Navalny’ at a vigil in Chisinau, Moldova. Photograph: Dumitru Doru/EPA
A man kneels at the monument to victims of political repression in St Petersburg, Russia. Photograph: Reuters
Joe Biden speaks at the White House, the US president blaming Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ‘and his thugs’ for the death of Alexei Navalny. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
A woman protestor with eye make-up made to look like blood at a vigil for Alexei Navalny in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Liesa Johannssen/Reuters
Russians remember Navalny with makeshift memorials
Groups of Russians laid flowers at makeshift memorials for Alexei Navalny on Friday, despite warnings from authorities that such gatherings were illegal.
Images on social media showed dozens of people queueing to place flowers at monuments to victims of political repression in the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg, AFP reported.
Authorities in the Russian capital said they were aware of calls online “to take part in a mass rally in the center of Moscow” and warned people against attending.
Protests are illegal in Russia under strict anti-dissent laws, and authorities have clamped down particularly harshly on rallies in support of Navalny. Officials in Moscow were filmed stripping people of protest banners, and arresting at least one activist.
Russia: activist detained seconds after attempting protest at Navalny commemoration – video
In Moscow, dozens laid red and white roses at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of Soviet-era repression opposite the headquarters of Russia’s FSB security services, the former home of the feared Soviet secret police.
At least one person was detained for holding up a placard that appeared to say “murderers” on it, according to a video posted by the independent Sota Telegram channel.
A handful of people were pictured gathering to lay flowers at a bridge next to the Kremlin where the Putin critic Boris Nemtsov was killed in 2015.
Police were filmed dispersing people who had gathered in the snow at a memorial in the central city of Kazan.
Some larger demonstrations also took place in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Armenia’s capital Yerevan and the Serbian capital Belgrade. All host significant populations of Russians who fled the country following Moscow’s military offensive on Ukraine.
The news agency AFP has published a moving account of Alexei Navalny’s final weeks in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence.
Through messages passed through his lawyers, he posted regularly on social media in a characteristically optimistic and light-hearted tone, the agency said.
Alexei Navalny, pictured in 2018. Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters
Here is what Navalny’s final weeks looked like, in his own words:
“Ho-ho-ho ... I am your new grandfather Frost,” he posted on 26 December, his first message from the freezing colony following several weeks when his whereabouts were unknown.
“I have a tulup, an ushanka and I will have valenki soon,” he said, referring to traditional furry Russian winter coats, hats and boots. I now live above the Arctic Circle.”
A few weeks later, he shared more details about his conditions in the new Arctic prison:
The idea that Putin was pleased [enough] that he had put me in a barracks in the Far North that they would stop throwing me in solitary confinement was … naive.
In response, prison authorities gave him seven days in solitary confinement, adding to the more than 300 days he spent alone during his three-year captivity.
In a 9 January post, he said he was thinking of a Hollywood movie star:
It has never been colder than -32C. Even in such a temperature you can walk more than half an hour, only if you have the time to grow back a nose, ears and fingers.
Today I was walking, freezing and thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio and his trick with a dead horse in The Revenant [a scene in which DiCaprio’s character crawls into an animal carcass to keep warm].
I don’t think it would work here. A dead horse would freeze to death within 15 minutes.
On 22 January, he said wardens would wake inmates at 5am to play the Russian national anthem.
In a court hearing on Thursday, one day before his death, he was filmed joking with a judge over fines he had been issued:
Your honor, I will send you my personal account number so that you, with your huge salary as a federal judge, can send me money. I am running out of cash, and thanks to your decisions, it will run out even faster. So send it!
His final post, on Valentine’s Day, was dedicated to his wife, Yulia:
Baby, you and I have everything, just like in the song: cities, airfield lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometers between us. But I feel that you are near me every second, and I love you more and more.
Here’s a video of Joe Biden addressing reporters at the White House on Friday, remarks in which the US president blamed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the death of dissident Alexei Navalny in bleak prison camp in the Arctic.
Biden said Navalny “bravely stood up to the corruption and violence, all the bad things the Putin government was doing”.
Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin responsible for Alexei Navalny's death – video
Here’s some more of what Joe Biden had to say about Alexei Navalny’s death, from the US president’s address at the White House that has now concluded:
He bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence, all the bad things the Putin government was doing. In response, Putin had him poisoned. He had him arrested and prosecuted for fabricated crimes.
He sent him to prison, he was held in isolation. Even all that didn’t stop him from calling out the lies. Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth.
He could have lived safely in exile after the assassination attempt on him in 2020, which nearly killed him I might add. He was traveling outside the country at the time. Instead, he returned to Russia, knowing he might be imprisoned.
During questions following his address, Biden was asked what consequences Russia might face:
They’ve [already] faced a hell of a lot of consequences, and lost or had wounded over 350,000 Russian soldiers [in Ukraine]. They’ve been subjected to great sanctions across the board.
And we’re contemplating what else can be done … we’re looking at a whole number of options.
Biden: US stands by 'sacred commitment' to Nato in wake of Navalny death
Joe Biden cautioned that the US was still awaiting formal confirmation of Alexei Navalny’s death, but that there was little reason to doubt the reported death of one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics was not true.
The US president also used Friday’s White House address to prod lawmakers in Washington DC, who have been stalling on a funding package to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion.
This tragedy reminds us of the stakes in this moment to provide the funding so Ukraine can keep defending itself against Putin’s vicious onslaught and war crimes.
You know, there was a bipartisan Senate vote that passed overwhelmingly in the United States Senate to fund Ukraine. History is watching. History is watching the House of Representatives.
The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten. It’s true down the pages of history, it really is. It’s consequential. The clock is ticking. And this has to happen. We have to help now.
Joe Biden addresses reporters at the White House Friday about the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters
Biden took a swipe at the former president Donald Trump, who caused a furore in a campaign speech at the weekend when he said he would encourage Russia to attack Nato countries that weren’t contributing enough financially to support the alliance.
We have to realize what we’re dealing with. All of us should reject the dangerous statements made by the previous president that invited Russia to invade our Nato allies if they weren’t paying up.
He said if an ally did not pay their dues, he encouraged Russia to, quote, ‘do whatever the hell they want’.
I guess I should clear my mind a little bit and not say what I’m really thinking, but let me be clear. This is an outrageous thing for a [former] president to say. I can’t fathom it.
As long as I’m president, America stands by our sacred commitment to our Nato allies.
