Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny, will meet European overseas ministers in Brussels on Monday, the European Union's overseas coverage chief mentioned.
Navalny, 47, essentially the most outstanding home foe of President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian jail on Friday after spending greater than three years behind bars, sparking outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and their supporters.
“On Monday, I welcomed Yulia Navalnaya to the Council of International Affairs of the EU,” Josep Borrell mentioned on the finish of Sunday the X.
“EU ministers will ship a robust message of assist to freedom fighters in Russia” and “honour” Navalny's reminiscence, he mentioned.
Earlier on Sunday, Navalnaya shared an Instagram submit displaying a photograph of the 2 collectively, their heads touching as they watched a efficiency.
“I like you,” she wrote within the submit two days after her husband's demise.
It introduced a private be aware to the loss that she expressed extra formally on a public stage simply hours after Navalny's demise was introduced by the Russian jail service.
Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a stroll within the “Polar Wolf” penal colony within the Arctic, the place he was serving a three-decade sentence, the jail service mentioned. There are nonetheless few particulars about why he died.
On Friday afternoon, Navalnaya appeared earlier than an viewers of leaders, diplomats and different officers on the Munich Safety Convention, saying he had been weighing whether or not to go on stage or go away instantly to be with the couple's two youngsters. Daria and Zakhar, deciding that her husband wished. she to talk.
If the information of his demise was true, Navalnaya, 47, mentioned: “I need Putin, all his entourage, Putin's mates, his authorities to know that they should take accountability for what they did to the our nation, to my household, to my husband”.
Tons of arrested
Navalny's sudden demise was a crushing blow to many Russians, who had pinned their hopes for the longer term on Putin's fiercest enemy.
Navalny has remained vocal in his relentless criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving nerve agent poisoning and receiving a number of jail phrases.
His demise got here a month earlier than a presidential election in Russia that’s broadly anticipated to present Putin one other six years in energy.
Tons of of individuals in dozens of Russian cities handed ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repression with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay tribute to the politician.
In additional than a dozen cities, police have arrested 366 folks since Sunday night, in response to the rights group OVD-Information which tracks political arrests and supplies authorized help.
Greater than 200 arrests have been made in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest metropolis, the group mentioned.
Amongst these arrested was Grigory Mikhnov-Voitenko, a priest of the Apostolic Orthodox Church – a non secular group unbiased from the Russian Orthodox Church – who introduced plans on social media to carry a memorial service for Navalny and was arrested on Saturday morning outdoors his dwelling. .
He was accused of organizing an illustration and positioned in a cell at a police precinct, however was later hospitalized with a coronary heart assault, OVD-Information mentioned.
St. Petersburg courts ordered 42 of these arrested on Friday to serve one to 6 days in jail, whereas 9 others have been fined, court docket officers mentioned late Saturday.
In Moscow, a minimum of six folks have been ordered to serve 15 days in jail, in response to OVD-Information.
Questions stay
Questions on the reason for demise stay, and it’s unclear when the authorities will have the ability to launch Navalny's physique.
Greater than 12,000 folks have submitted requests to the Russian authorities to request the supply of the politician's stays to his kin, OVD-Information reported on Sunday.
Navalny's group mentioned on Saturday that the politician was “murdered” and accused the authorities of intentionally stalling the discharge of the physique, with Navalny's mom and attorneys receiving conflicting info from numerous establishments the place they went within the his quest to recuperate the physique.
Russian authorities see Navalny and his supporters as extremists with ties to the CIA intelligence company in the USA, which they are saying seeks to destabilize Russia. Navalny has at all times rejected accusations that he was a CIA asset.
