The wife of now-deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin killed her husband, vowing to continue her late husband’s anti-corruption work.
The statements from Yulia Navalnaya come as Navalny’s spokeswoman wrote on X that Russian officials have yet to reveal his official cause of death and will nott tell his mother or lawyers how long the investigation is going to take.
"Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband Alexei Navalny. Putin killed the father of my children. Putin took away the most precious thing I had. Putin took away the closest and most beloved person," Navalnaya said in a video message, according to The Moscow Times.
"I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country and I urge you to stand next to me," she reportedly continued, adding that "Putin killed not just the man Alexei Navalny, he wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future."
WIFE OF JAILED RUSSIAN DISSIDENT SAYS NAVALNY WAS ‘MURDERED’ IN COLD BLOOD
Navalny’s body reportedly was found with "signs of bruising," while government officials told his mother on Saturday that Navalny died of "sudden death syndrome," according to Reuters. World leaders including President Biden are blaming Putin after Russia announced Navalny’s death at a penal colony in Siberia on Friday, but the Kremlin is now calling those statements "obnoxious," the news agency adds.
"The Investigative Committee informed the mother and the lawyers that the investigation of the death of Navalny has been extended. They don’t say how long it will take. The cause of death is still ‘unknown,’" Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on X on Monday. "They lie, buy time for themselves and do not even hide it."
"Alexei’s mother and his lawyers arrived at the morgue early in the morning. They were not allowed to go in," Yarmysh wrote in another post. "One of the lawyers was literally pushed out. When the staff was asked if Alexey’s body was there, they did not answer."
Officials at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp where Navalny died have told his mother that his body could not be handed over until an investigation had been completed. They said his body was sent to a nearby morgue.
Navalnaya claimed she knew the reason for the delay.
"Meanly and cowardly, they are now hiding his body, not showing it to his mother, not giving it, and pathetically lying and waiting for the traces of another Putin’s Novichok to disappear," she said, referring to the same nerve agent Navalny was poisoned with in 2020. "We know why exactly Putin killed Alexei three days ago, we will tell you about it soon, we will definitely find out who exactly and how exactly this crime was carried out, we will name names and show faces."
An anonymous paramedic claiming to work for the morgue previously told independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe that the bruising was consistent with a person being held down while suffering a seizure.
Prison officials said Navalny, 47, went on a walk on Friday before feeling unwell. He then fell unconscious and died shortly afterward, they claim.
President Biden said following news of Navalny’s death that there is "no doubt" it was a "consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did."
The Kremlin on Monday denounced statements from the U.S. and Europe blaming Putin for Navalny’s passing.
"We consider it absolutely unacceptable to make such, well, frankly obnoxious statements," Kremin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Reuters as saying. "These statements, of course, cannot cause any damage to our head of our state."
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
