Alexei Navalny news latest: Putin ‘thinks he’s untouchable’ as body still missing

“Putin has tried to murder Navalny multiple times”, she said at the Munich Security Conference. “The reason is to silence that dream of freedom that so many Russians have and that he [Navalny] represented.”

Foreign secretary David Cameron has already vowed that the UK will step in and hold Russia accountable for what happened.

Navalny’s family are now calling for his body to be released.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said there should be a thorough investigation into the death of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before making any accusations.

His remarks were in sharp contrast to Western leaders’ strong and swift criticisms of Russia over Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony on Friday. US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin and “his thugs” were responsible.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected such accusations as unacceptable.

Speaking at a press conference after attending an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Lula said refraining from taking a stance on the death at this moment was a matter of “common sense.”

“A citizen died in prison, I don’t know if he was ill or had any issues,” Lula said. “To make an accusation is to trivialize. I hope that a coroner will provide an explanation for why the individual died, that’s all.”

Lula’s comments reflected how non-Western nations have not joined the West in its efforts to deeply isolate Russian Putin over the invasion of Ukraine and other issues.

Lula has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and says that Russia should not have invaded. But he says that the United States has needlessly prolonged the war.

Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, has posted a picture on Instagram of her and her husband together with the caption “I love you”.

For the mother of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died at age 47 in an Arctic penal colony, the journey to recover her son’s body Saturday was an odyssey with no clear destination.

In the end, she didn’t get what she came for.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, received an official note Saturday stating that the politician had died in prison at 2:17 p.m. local time a day earlier, Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson said Saturday.

President Joe Biden said Friday there was no sign Russia has decided to go ahead and deploy an emerging anti-satellite weapon, the disclosure of which has rattled Washington this week.

The White House has confirmed that U.S. intelligence officials have information indicating Russia has obtained such a capability, although such a weapon is not yet operational. Biden said Friday that “there’s no evidence that they have made a decision to go forward with doing anything in space,” while he continued to stress that there was no immediate danger to humans.

Over 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony, a prominent rights group reported.

The sudden death of Navalny, 47, was a crushing blow to many Russians, who had pinned their hopes for the future on President Vladimir Putin‘s fiercest foe. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms.

A former Russian supermodel-turned-activist has revealed that she’s had to ‘brief’ her children on what nerve agent poisoning looks like in the wake of Alexei Navalny‘s death – and fears something could happen to her.

Ksenia Maximova has been helping Russians to flee Putin‘s regime, and is now based in the UK, scared to return to her home country as she would likely be arrested.

“I have been told I shouldn’t worry about my safety here [the UK], she told Sky‘s Trevor Phillips.

“I definitely can’t travel to some places”, she added, noting that she would be extradited.

Alexei Navalny’s name will become a byword for courage. Vladimir Putin’s just became one for cowardice.

Russia has a tradition of admiring strong men. They had one in Navalny. They have just discovered that they have a weakling and a coward in Putin. Every household and every soldier in Russia knows that tonight.

Putin has indeed struck a killing blow: to himself.

The wife of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Vladamir Kara-Murza has admitted she believes ‘many more’ prisoners are in danger following the death of Alexei Navalny.

Evgenia Kara-Murza appeared on BBC News this morning (18 February), where she explained her suspicions were raised by her seemingly healthy husband collapsing in 2015.

“I’ve been sleeping with my phone since dreading yet another call of that sort”, she said. “I believe that my husband’s life is in danger as are lives of many other political prisoners… These people are kept behind bars, very often with serious medical conditions, with no proper medical treatment.”

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to face an international tribunal on crimes against humanity following the death of Alexei Navalny.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “We’ve been calling for a special tribunal for crimes of aggression and against humanity.

“I’d like to see Putin in front of that special tribunal, held to account for all of his crimes, not just in Ukraine, but as we are seeing just in the last 48 hours in Russia as well.

“And of course as Russia holds elections this year, it’s important that the international community is able to verify that they are free and fair elections.”