MOSCOW (Reuters) – Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said on Monday that she would continue her husband’s fight for a free Russia and called on supporters to battle President Vladimir Putin with greater fury than ever.
“I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Navalnaya said in a video message entitled “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny”.
“Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” Navalnaya said, adding that she would work with the Russian people to battle with the Kremlin to create a new Russia.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in his death.
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me – half of my heart and half of my soul,” Navalnaya said.
“But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny, continue to fight for our country.”
“I urge you to stand next to me,” she said. “I ask you to share the rage with me. Rage, anger, hatred towards those who dared to kill our future.”
Navalnaya accused the Russian authorities of hiding Navalny’s body and of waiting for traces of the Novichok nerve agent to disappear from his body.
“We know exactly why Putin killed Alexei three days ago,” she said. “We will tell you about it soon. We will definitely find out who exactly carried out this crime and how exactly. We will name the names and show the faces.”
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Andrew Osborn)
