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☆ Yulia Navalnaya is raising hopes for a renewed Russian opposition. She will face huge challenges
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

On Monday, just three days after her husband’s death, Yulia Navalnaya rebranded herself as a political force, vowing to pick up where her husband left off. And yet for those left, Navalny’s death has created some momentum to keep trying. The man who put Nadezhdin forward, Civic Initiative party leader Andrey Nechaev, a former economy minister in the 1990s, denies there’s no functioning opposition left. On Saturday, the Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielus Landsbergis posted a photo of himself with Khodorkovsky, Kasparov, and another exiled former Russian opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov. “We shouldn’t overestimate the spread of opposition ideas, opposition moods in Russian society,” says Bondarev.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, “ You’re, Navalny’s, Yulia, Yulia Navalnaya, ”, “, Putin, Alexey, ” Yulia Navalnaya, Boris Bondarev, ” Bondarev, Navalnaya, ” Navalny, Grigory Yavlinsky, Yavlinsky, Ilya Yashin, Navalny, Vladimir Kara, Murza, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov, Russia’s, Boris Nadezhdin, Andrey Nechaev, Nechaev, Boris Nemtsov’s, Evgeny Feldman, ” Khodorkovsky, Gabrielus Landsbergis, Khodorkovsky, Kasparov, Dmitry Gudkov, …, Putin’s Organizations: CNN, CNN Films, Navalnaya, Munich Security, Corruption, Putin, Civic Initiative Locations: Tomsk, Germany, Russian, Ukraine, Brussels, Russia, British, Moscow, Kirov , Russia, Lithuanian

☆ Navalny’s mother asks Putin to release her son’s body in video filmed outside Arctic penal colony
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Joshua Berlinger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Alexey Navalny’s family has made a direct plea to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the release of the Russian dissident’s body, five days after he died behind bars in a penal colony. Standing in the snow outside the facility where her son was imprisoned, Lyudmila Navalnaya addressed Putin directly, saying she has not been told where Navalny’s body is. Navalny’s lawyer tried to call a number on the building’s door, but he was told the body was not there. Navalny’s lawyer tried to call a number on the building’s door, but he was told the body was not there. Two days later, Navalnaya was rebuffed in person at the morgue, Yarmish said, adding that staff refused to say whether the body was inside.

Persons: CNN — Alexey Navalny’s, Vladimir Putin, Lyudmila Navalnaya, Putin, ” Navalnaya, Navalny, Navalny “, ”, Navalnaya, Kira Yarmish, Yarmish, Navalny’s, Novichok, Yulia Navalnaya, “, Dmitry Peskov, Alexey, Don’t, Oleg, ministry’s, Oleg Navalny Organizations: CNN, Staff, European Union Foreign Affairs, EU, Munich Locations: Russian, Putin’s, Soviet, Russia, Germany

Many world leaders blamed President Vladimir Putin and his government for Navalny’s death Friday at age 47. Navalny’s team said he was “murdered,” and charged that officials' refusal to hand over his body was part of a cover-up. Yarmysh said that Navalny's mother and his lawyers weren't allowed into the morgue in Salekhard on Monday morning. The U.S. and British ambassadors also mourned Navalny's death at a memorial in Moscow. Over 50,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government asking for Navalny's remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said.

Persons: Alexei Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, Lyudmila Navalnaya, ” Yarmysh, Vladimir Putin, Navalny’s, “, ”, Yarmysh, weren't, Ivan Zhdanov, “ lackeys, Navalny's, Navalny, ” Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya Organizations: Investigative, Kremlin, Authorities, Russia’s Federal, Service, European Union Locations: Salekhard, Russia, U.S, Moscow, Russia’s, Kharp, Germany, Brussels

☆ Trump Breaks Silence on Navalny Death, but Doesn’t Condemn Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Anjali Huynh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Days after the death of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was first reported, Donald J. Trump broke his silence in a social media post on Monday that barely mentioned Mr. Navalny and that did not condemn President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Instead, he used Mr. Navalny’s death to suggest that his own legal battles amounted to political persecution. It was a note he hit first on Sunday, when he shared screenshots of an opinion essay that compared his relationship with President Biden to the one between Mr. Navalny and Mr. Putin. “The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” the former president wrote on Truth Social on Monday, using an alternative spelling of Mr. Navalny’s given name. Instead, Mr. Trump cited “Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions” in casting the U.S., in all capital letters, as a “nation in decline, a failing nation.”

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny, Donald J, Trump, Vladimir V, Putin, Biden, Alexei Navalny, Navalny’s, ” Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Russia, United States

☆ Navalny’s widow accuses Putin of killing him and vows to continue his work
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Sebastian Shukla | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The widow of the Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his death and said she would pick up his fight for a “happy, beautiful Russia.”Yulia Navalnaya posted a video on her dead husband’s social media outlets Monday, saying Putin “killed the father of my children, Putin took away the most precious thing that was my closest and most beloved person.”She said Russian authorities were “hiding” Navalny’s body in an attempt to disguise the cause of his death – “lying pathetically” and waiting for “traces of another of Putin’s Novichoks to disappear.”Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent, in August 2020. A CNN and Bellingcat investigation later uncovered an FSB hit squad that planted the poison on his underwear. Navalnaya didn’t provide any evidence to support her claim that a second poisoning was the cause of her husband’s unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony on Friday. The Kremlin has said an investigation into the circumstances around Navalny’s death is “underway,” and the results are currently “unknown.”This is a breaking story. More details to come

Persons: Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin, ” Yulia Navalnaya, Putin “, Putin, Navalny Organizations: CNN, FSB Locations: Russian, Russia, ”

The sudden death of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most formidable antagonist has left an open wound in Russia's political opposition. Navalny also was the first opposition leader in Russia to receive a lengthy prison sentence in recent years. In the three years since Navalny lost his freedom, multiple prominent dissidents were imprisoned, while others fled Russia under pressure. MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKYMikhail Khodorkovsky, 60, is a former tycoon turned Russian opposition figure in exile. Kara-Murza was an associate of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, another fierce Putin critic who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015.

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Alexei Navalny, Navalny, Leonid Volkov, Maria Pevchikh, Ivan Zhdanov, Kira Yarmysh —, “ Alexei, ” Volkov, MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Khodorkovsky, Putin, Andrei Pivovarov, Garry Kasparov, Dmitry Gudkov, VLADIMIR KARA, MURZA, Vladimir Kara, Murza, Boris Nemtsov, Kara, Nemtsov, Sergei Magnitsky, Yevgenia, ILYA YASHIN Ilya Yashin, Navalny's, Yashin's, Yashin, ” Yashin Organizations: YouTube, Putin, TEAM, Corruption Foundation, Olympics, Kremlin, Putin's Russia —, U.S, Associated Press Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Black, Sochi, London, Putin's Russia, Washington, Moscow

☆ Inside Aleksei Navalny’s Final Months, in His Own Words
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Anton Troianovski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Confined to cold, concrete cells and often alone with his books, Aleksei A. Navalny sought solace in letters. To one acquaintance, he wrote in July that no one could understand Russian prison life “without having been here,” adding in his deadpan humor: “But there’s no need to be here.”“If they’re told to feed you caviar tomorrow, they’ll feed you caviar,” Mr. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, wrote to the same acquaintance, Ilia Krasilshchik, in August. “If they’re told to strangle you in your cell, they’ll strangle you.”Many details about his last months — as well as the circumstances of his death, which the Russian authorities announced on Friday — remain unknown; even the whereabouts of his body are unclear.

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny, they’re, Mr, Ilia Krasilshchik Locations: Russian

☆ Russia says an investigation is underway into Navalny’s death, denies refusing to release his body
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Sam Meredith | Www.Linkedin.Com In Samuelmeredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Navalny, 47, was a well-known figure in Russia and a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. World leaders reacted with dismay and suspicion to the news, while Navalny's allies say the anti-corruption campaigner was likely murdered on Putin's orders. U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that "Putin is responsible" for Navalny's death. "Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny's death ... What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin's brutality." Asked whether the Kremlin was interested in a proper probe into Navanly's death, Peskov replied, "Actions provided for by Russia's legislation are being taken."

Persons: Alexei Navalny, Navalny, Vladimir Putin, Navalny's, Dmitry Peskov, Putin, Joe Biden, Peskov Organizations: NBC Locations: Russia

Kremlin political critics, turncoat spies and investigative journalists have been killed or assaulted in a variety of way s. The Russian opposition has lost its brightest star with Navalny's sudden death in a prison colony. “This is a very difficult loss for the Russian opposition,” he told The Associated Press after his death. While Navalny was the first leader to build a national Russian opposition, there were other opposition factions who didn’t like him or his organization. While Navalny’s team continued to publish successful investigative reports, they ultimately suspended the protests and said they would switch to different tactics. OPPOSITION IN EXILEIn the meantime, the Russian opposition faces a future largely in exile without one of its brightest leaders.

Persons: — Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin, “ You’re, ”, Navalny, turncoat, Putin, “ Alexei Navalny, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Graeme Robertson, ” Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Kara, Murza Jr, PUTIN, “, Nigel Gould, Davies, PUTIN Putin, Robertson, Khodorkovsky, Navalny’s, “ Putin Organizations: Kremlin, Associated Press, University of North, Chapel Hill, Corruption Foundation, Corruption, International Institute for Strategic Studies Locations: Russia, University of North Carolina, London, Russian, Ukraine, British, Belarus, Eurasia, Moscow, Germany

☆ Speaker Mike Johnson faces critical decision on Ukraine aid as international pressure grows to act
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Melanie Zanona | Annie Grayer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —Speaker Mike Johnson is facing international criticism over his lack of swift action on Ukraine aid, which is ratcheting up pressure to make a critical decision that will not only have massive implications for his rookie speakership but also for Ukraine’s ongoing war effort against Russia. “If there is a Mike Johnson plan, there aren’t any House Republicans that are aware of its existence.”The pressure cooker Johnson is facing has exposed some frustration over how he has approached his speakership. At a time when House Republicans are looking to their leader to make a decisive choice, the speaker has instead elevated members to bring forward their own ideas without articulating his own preferences. “Ukraine is in desperate need of the US aid, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote on the floor of the United States Senate. “We’re looking at a number of options on our leadership team.”Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has repeatedly hammered Johnson over his inaction.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Johnson, –, Alexei Navalny, Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, Sen, J.D, Vance, Johnson —, Warren Davidson, ” Davidson, Virginia Sen, Mark Warner, ”, Ben Cardin, “, ” Cardin, It’s, Brian Fitzpatrick, someone’s, Mitch McConnell, Vladimir Putin, ” Johnson, Steve Scalise, Trump, ” Scalise, Joe Biden, ” Biden, NATO … I’ve, Biden, Chuck Schumer, Putin “, Vladimir Putin’s, ” Schumer, it’s, There’s, Mike Turner, ” CNN’s Alex Marquardt Organizations: CNN, Russia, Democratic, Congress, Global, Security, Republicans, Republican, NATO, GOP, Caucus, languishes, Senate Intelligence, United, United States Senate, Senate, NATO …, New, New York Democrat, House Intelligence, Ohio Republican, Press, Ukraine Locations: Ukraine, Russian, Warren Davidson of Ohio, “, Munich, United States, Russia, Pennsylvania, Baltic, Florida, New York, Washington

☆ Avdiivka: Ukraine’s defeat darkens the mood in the West
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Traveling from the Munich Security Conference towards Ukraine’s frontlines, the polite frustration and manicured pleas of Western leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky feel yet more desperate. Ukrainian soldiers of Brigade 71 fire artillery in the direction of Avdiivka on February 18, 2024. Latvia’s president spoke of “murder,” Germany’s defense minister of how the death showed Russia was “willing and able to provoke” the West. Tobias Schwarz/ReutersIn and of itself, the Ukrainian defeat Avdiivka does not herald a sea change in Kyiv’s fortunes. Instead they may face larger existential questions about providing a lot more help, very urgently, to stop Ukraine’s war becoming Europe’s.

Persons: Ukraine’s frontlines, Volodymyr Zelensky, Diego Herrera Carcedo, Alexey Navalny, Putin, ”, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Zelensky –, –, Tobias Schwarz, Avdiivka, Bakhmut, —, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Oleksandr Syrsky —, Zelensky, ’, Tucker Carlson, Kostiantyn, Zaluzhnyi Organizations: CNN, Munich, Ukraine’s, Ukrainian, United States Congress, Brigade, Getty, Trump, NATO, Republican, Reuters, European Union Locations: Europe, Ukraine, Avdiivka, Anadolu, Russia, West, Munich, Germany, Moscow, Kyiv, Kupiansk, Kharkiv, Russian, Poland, frontlines, North Korea

☆ Cheney warns of Republican Party ‘Putin wing’ after Navalny death
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Jack Forrest | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday warned of a Republican Party “Putin wing” after former President Donald Trump responded to the death of outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny without actually mentioning him or Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We have to take seriously the extent to which you’ve now got a Putin wing of the Republican Party. Biden, in his comments at the White House following the announcement of Navalny’s death, forcefully pinned the blame on “Putin and his thugs.”“Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. “When you think about Donald Trump, for example, pledging retribution, what Vladimir Putin did to Navalny is what retribution looks like in a country where a leader is not subject to the rule of law,” Cheney said Sunday.

Persons: Liz Cheney, “, Donald Trump, Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin, you’ve, Putin, ” Cheney, Jake Tapper, Joe Biden, Trump, Biden, “ Putin, ”, ” Biden, Jens Stoltenberg, “ He’s, GOP Sen, Tim Scott of, ” Scott, Scott, CNN’s Kit Maher, Avery Lotz Organizations: CNN, GOP, Republican, “ Putin, Putin, Republican Party, West, White, Union, NATO, “, Sunday, Trump Locations: “ State, Russian, Russia, United States, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Ukraine, America

☆ Alexey Navalny: Arrests, vigils, and Kremlin silence as Russia marks Putin critic’s death
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Sophie Tanno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The prosecutor’s office in Moscow warned that any demonstrations in the capital over the death of Navalny were forbidden. Stringer/ReutersSince Navalny’s death more than 366 people have been detained, according to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group that monitors Russian repression. “Navalny’s death is terrible: hopes have been smashed,” he said. On some of Russia’s state media channels, however, reports of Navalny’s death have been scant. The claims follow condemnation from Russia’s foreign ministry over the West’s response to Navalny’s death.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, Navalny, Vladimir Putin, Putin, “ Putin, Josef Stalin, SOTA, Stringer, Vladimir Putin’s “, ”, “ Navalny, Alexander, Andrei Bok, Mikhail, Surgut, Alexei Navalny, Peter Nicholls, Maria Zakharova, –, “, CNN’s Eve Brennan, Uliana Pavlova Organizations: CNN, Reuters, Don, Nizhny, Russian, Russian Embassy, CIA, Russia, Foreign, NATO, Putin, Kremlin Locations: Russia, Berlin, Paris, Hague, ”, Moscow, Siberian, Novosibirsk, St Petersburg, Murmansk, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod, OVD, Ukraine, Germany, Soviet, Surgut, Siberia, St . Petersburg, Belgorod –, Chelyabinsk, Russia’s, London

☆ Opinion: Alexey Navalny, one man who stood up to a dictatorship
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. “In his courageous and too short life,” wrote Russia scholar Daniel Treisman, “Navalny became a symbol of hope for the younger generations of his compatriots. “He never gave up on the prospect of what he called ‘the beautiful Russia of the future,’” Treisman noted. “For a ‘beautiful Russia of the future’ to emerge in coming years, Putin must lose the war he started. Navalny understood this.”“Navalny’s death represents the extinguishing of all hope for Russia’s turnaround,” wrote Sasha Vasilyuk.

Persons: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Stalin “, “, ”, you’ve, Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s, Navalny, fearlessly, Putin, Daniel Treisman, “ Navalny, Navalny’s, ’ ” Treisman, Sasha Vasilyuk, Alexey Navalny’s, Peter Bergen, Andrei Sakharov, ” Putin, Bergen, Nick Anderson, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Trump, authoritarians, Bill Bramhall, James Mattis, ” Peter Bergen, Frida Ghitis, Fidel Castro’s playbook, Patrick Mahomes, Andy “, Amy Bass, New York Democrat Tom Suozzi, George Santos, ” Suozzi, CNN Suozzi didn’t, Biden, isn’t, Long, Max Burns, ” “, Alejandro Mayorkas, ” “ Suozzi, Burns, Robert Hur’s, Norm Eisen, Richard Painter, Joshua Kolb, Hur, ” Joel Pett, Lawrence C, Levy, Julian Zelizer, Dean Obeidallah, Mark Dent, Dent, Saw, Clay Jones, David Orentlicher, ” Orentlicher, Will Cooper, Fani, Willis, Nathan, Wade, ” “ Willis, Antony Blinken, Batniji, Blinken, Fatah, Hussein, Don’t, David Horsey, Agency Jill Filipovic, Lynda Gorov, Taylor Swift, Jim Parrott, Mark Zandi, Brigid Schulte, Yuliya, Kara Alaimo, Frankie de la, Jackie Robinson’s, Jon Stewart’s, Jon Stewart, Matt Wilson, Jon Stewart skewered Trump, Bill Carter, Stewart, ” “ Stewart Organizations: CNN, IK, Moscow Times, Kremlin, Twitter, Facebook, Soviet, Tribune, Agency, Republican, Senate, Agency Former US Defense, Trump, , Kansas City Chiefs, Chiefs, nab, New, New York Democrat, Democratic, GOP, Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, Super Bowl, Kansas, West Bank Locations: Soviet, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, New York, Washington, Georgia, ,, York, Glen Cove, Joel Osteen’s, Houston, Kansas City, America, ”, Kansas, Gaza, San Francisco, Israel, Iran

☆ As Putin Threatens, Despair and Hedging in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( David E. Sanger | Steven Erlanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the leaders of the West gathered in Munich over the past three days, President Vladimir V. Putin had a message for them: Nothing they’ve done so far — sanctions, condemnation, attempted containment — would alter his intentions to disrupt the current world order. Aleksei Navalny’s suspicious death in a remote Arctic prison made ever clearer that Mr. Putin will tolerate no dissent as elections approach. And the American discovery, disclosed in recent days, that Mr. Putin may be planning to place a nuclear weapon in space — a bomb designed to wipe out the connective tissue of global communications if Mr. Putin is pushed too far — was a potent reminder of his capacity to strike back at his adversaries with the asymmetric weapons that remain a key source of his power. In Munich, the mood was both anxious and unmoored, as leaders faced confrontations they had not anticipated. Warnings about Mr. Putin’s possible next moves were mixed with Europe’s growing worries that it could soon be abandoned by the United States, the one power that has been at the core of its defense strategy for 75 years.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Aleksei Navalny’s, Mr, Putin’s Locations: Munich, Russia, Ukraine, Avdiivka, United States

☆ Haley calls Trump’s NATO comments ‘bone-chilling’ and empowering to Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Aileen Graef | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called former President Donald Trump’s recent NATO comments “bone-chilling” and empowering to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “NATO was busted until I came along,” Trump said at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Haley’s home state. “He sided with a guy that kills his political opponents. Her comments came a day after Trump was fined $355 million in his New York civil fraud trial. The former president was also recently ordered in a defamation case to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll, and he faces four criminal indictments.

Persons: Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Putin, ” Haley, ” Trump, “, ‘ Everybody’s, ’, ‘, ”, Alexey Navalny, Joe Biden, Trump, Navalny, bashed Biden, ’ ” Haley, “ he’s, he’s, Jean Carroll, CNN’s Ebony Davis, Michelle Shen Organizations: CNN, Republican, NATO, Putin, UN, South Carolina, GOP Locations: South Carolina, Russia, Conway , South Carolina, Irmo , South Carolina, New York

☆ Opinion: The best tribute we can pay to Navalny
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Opinion Daniel Treisman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

In his courageous and too short life, Navalny became a symbol of hope for the younger generations of his compatriots. Rather than attack Navalny as a political rival, the authorities peddled a concocted image of Navalny as a petty swindler. Navalny’s death will leave a gaping hole at the center of Russia’s opposition movement, already fragmented and scattered across the globe. To Western leaders who have called on Russia to respect human rights, Navalny’s death is an open affront. A year ago, while he was serving his sentence, Navalny called for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine — and pay it compensation — with posts from his Twitter account.

Persons: Daniel Treisman, Sergei Guriev, Alexey Navalny, Putin, ”, Navalny, Navalny’s, ” Putin, Tucker Carlson, Yaroslav the Wise, Novichok, “, Boris Nadezhdin, Joe Biden, “ Putin, —, Sergei Magnitsky, Biden, ” Navalny Organizations: University of California, CNN, Navalny’s, Kremlin, Federal Security Service, Putin, Navalny, Republicans, Ukraine — Locations: Los Angeles, Russia, Soviet Union, Moscow, Russian, Ukrainian, ”, Europe, Ukraine

☆ Risking Arrest, Russians Mourn Navalny in Small Acts of Protest
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Valerie Hopkins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The flowers, wrapped in paper to shield them from the icy wind, were not only a symbol of mourning. They also served as a form of protest in a country where even the mildest dissent can risk detention. “He didn’t die, he was killed,” said Alla, 75, a pensioner who declined to give her last name because of possible repercussions. “Theoretically, we knew that they wanted to destroy him,” said her friend Elena, 77, whose arm was interlaced with Alla’s. “But when it happened it was such a shock, the senseless brutality of it, just senseless.” She found out what had happened when her daughter and granddaughter called her in tears to share the news.

Persons: Aleksei A, Stalin, ”, Alla, Elena Locations: Russian

☆ From Frigid Cells to Mystery Injections, Prison Imperiled Navalny’s Health
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Paul Sonne | Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Aleksei A. Navalny portrayed himself as invincible, consistently using his hallmark humor to suggest that President Vladimir V. Putin couldn’t break him, no matter how dire his conditions became in prison. But behind the brave face, the reality was plain to see. Since his incarceration in early 2021, Mr. Navalny, Russia’s most formidable opposition figure, and his staff regularly suggested his conditions were so grim that he was being put to death in slow motion. The cause of Mr. Navalny’s death in prison at 47 has not been established — in fact his family has not yet even been allowed to see his body — but Russia’s harshest penal colonies are known for hazardous conditions, and Mr. Navalny was singled out for particularly brutal treatment. “As Navalny’s doctor told me: the body cannot withstand this.”

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny, Vladimir V, Putin, Navalny’s, “ Aleksei Navalny, Dmitri A, Muratov, ” Locations: Russian

☆ Opinion: Navalny’s death extinguished the last hope I had for my former home
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Opinion Sasha Vasilyuk | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

She grew up between Ukraine, Russia and the US. As someone who grew up between Ukraine and Russia, I used to go back to both countries to visit family every year. She asked me if I’d heard about Navalny’s death and said she was heartbroken and had been crying all morning. But Navalny’s death represents the extinguishing of all hope for Russia’s turnaround. That speaks of Navalny’s power to inspire small acts of courage, even if they won’t bring any real change in the face of overriding fear.

Persons: Sasha Vasilyuk, Alexey Navalny, Navalny, Putin, Sasha Vasilyu, Christopher Michel A, I’d, hadn’t, Sergei GAPON, SERGEI GAPON, Sergei Gapon, “, ”, Russia lawlessly, –, didn’t, Sasha Alexeyeva, “ I’ve Organizations: CNN, Getty, Russian Embassy, Twitter, Facebook Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, California, Moscow, today’s Russia, Europe, Eastern Europe, Latvia, Warsaw, AFP, Crimea

☆ Navalny’s body should be handed over to his family ‘immediately,’ Navalny spokesperson says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Darya Tarasova | Radina Gigova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The body of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny should be handed over to his family “immediately,” his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said Saturday, adding his mother has been officially notified of his death. “An employee of the colony said that the body of Navalny is now in Salekhard. “We demand that Alexey Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately,” Yarmysh said. The death of Navalny, 47, was announced on Friday by the Russian prison service but Yarmysh’s comments mark the first confirmation from his team. The Russian prison service on Friday said Navalny “felt unwell after a walk” and “almost immediately” lost consciousness.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, “, ”, Kira Yarmysh, “ Alexey Navalny, ” Yarmysh, Alexey Navalny’s, Navalny, Navalny “, ” Navalny, Putin, Navalnvy, Joe Biden, Jens Stoltenberg Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, NATO Locations: Salekhard, Russia, Germany, Soviet

☆ Aleksei Navalny’s Allies Confirm His Death
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | More About Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Aleksei A. Navalny’s political allies on Saturday confirmed his death, saying that his mother had received an official notification of it. Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, said in a statement on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr. Navalny’s body from a penal colony in the Arctic to the nearby town of Salekhard, where it is being examined. “We demand for Aleksei Navalny’s body to be released to his family immediately,” Ms. Yarmysh said in her statement. Ms. Yarmysh is a member of a team of Mr. Navalny’s allies. Working from outside Russia, they continued to carry out his work after his poisoning in 2020 and his subsequent imprisonment, publishing his statements and organizing political events.

Persons: Aleksei A, Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s, Aleksei Navalny’s, ” Ms, Yarmysh Organizations: Saturday Locations: Salekhard, Russia

☆ Navalny’s Challenge to Putin’s Russia - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Serge Schmemann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This treatment of Mr. Navalny’s death — with the gravity usually reserved for a national crisis — flies in the face of the government charade that he was nothing more than a crook or could be discredited by calling him a terrorist, extremist and Nazi, as the trumped-up charges that sent him to the labor camp implied. Instead, the official reactions inadvertently confirmed what Mr. Putin had tried so hard to conceal: that Mr. Navalny’s ceaseless accusations of corruption and misrule were a serious political challenge to Mr. Putin’s dictatorial rule. And that in death, Mr. Navalny could become even more dangerous. Unlike his Soviet predecessors in the Kremlin, who could draw on a universalist ideology to justify repression, Mr. Putin has had to build his personal rule on an illusion of democracy while fixing elections, bending the courts to his will and allowing massive corruption. Instead of criminalizing opposition as “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,” Mr. Putin must combat principled dissent, like Mr. Navalny’s, with concocted labels like “foreign agent” or “terrorism.”

Persons: Alexei Navalny crusaded, Vladimir Putin, Navalny’s, Putin, ”, Mr, Navalny Organizations: Nazi, Kremlin Locations: Russian, Chelyabinsk, United States, Europe

Floral tributes to Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe who died Friday in a Russian penal colony, were removed overnight by groups of unknown people while police watched, videos on Russian social media channels show. Russia's prison service said in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence. On Saturday, police blocked access to a memorial in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and detained several people, OVD-Info said. Videos and photos shared on Russian social media channels showed flowers being cleared from monuments to victims of Soviet-era repressions across Russia. The news of Navalny's death comes less than a month before an election that will give Putin another six years in power.

Persons: Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, ”, Nigel Gould, Davies, Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei, Putin’s, ” Navalnaya, Joe Biden, Washington doesn’t, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Navalny “, Dmitry Peskov, Kira Yarmysh Organizations: Russia's Federal Security Service, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Russia’s Federal, Service Locations: Russian, Russia, Siberian, Novosibirsk, Moscow, British, Belarus, Eurasia, London, Russia’s, Kharp, Germany, ”

CNN —President Joe Biden, in a call Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, directly tied Ukraine’s withdrawal from the key town of Avdiivka to Congress’ inability to pass further aid for the country’s effort to fend off Russia’s invasion. “This morning, Ukraine’s military was forced to withdraw from Avdiivka after Ukrainian soldiers had to ration ammunition due to dwindling supplies as a result of congressional inaction, resulting in Russia’s first notable gains in months. President Biden emphasized the need for Congress to urgently pass the national security supplemental funding bill to resupply Ukrainian forces,” according to a White House readout of the call. Earlier this week, the Senate passed with bipartisan support a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill, which includes $60 billion to support Ukraine. The withdrawal from Avdiivka marks the biggest gain for Moscow since it captured the city of Bakhmut last year.

Persons: Joe Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s, Biden, Alexey Navalny’s, Mike Johnson, Adrienne Watson, Kamala Harris, Zelensky, Harris, ” Harris, ”, ” Zelensky, “ Hatred, ” Biden, it’s, they’re Organizations: CNN, Ukraine, National Security, Munich, Representatives, White, Moscow Locations: Avdiivka, Ukraine, Germany, United States, Russia, Bakhmut

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