Alexei Navalny’s heartbroken wife has labelled Vladimir Putin as “satan” following a dispute over her late husband’s body.
Yulia Navalnaya accused the Russian leader of pretending to be an Orthodox Christian and said he took pleasure in “bombing peaceful people in their sleep at night” in Ukraine.
Her strong words come during a tense argument about the body of 47-year-old Navalny, with growing suspicions that his body holds proof that he was murdered in prison.
Yulia, who promised to carry on her husband’s work after his death in a penal colony last week, thinks Putin ordered his killing.
She stated: “Today is nine days since my husband died, nine days since Putin killed Alexei Navalny. But killing wasn’t enough for Putin. Now he holds his body hostage, tormenting his mother [Lyudmila], forcing her to agree to secret funerals.
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“I understand perfectly well that this was not concocted by some investigator from Salekhard [in Arctic Russia, where Navalny was sent to prison].
“Putin is behind it all. It’s Vladimir Putin who gives orders, sitting at the far end of this terrible chain of approvals. No, don’t give the body back. Put pressure on his mother. Break her. Tell her that her son’s body is decomposing.”
The widow of Alexei Navalny, a critic of Putin, has spoken out about the Russian leader’s demands regarding her husband’s burial. She said: “These are the conditions Putin is imposing – that same Putin, who likes to show he is a devout Christian.
“Alexei sincerely believed that one should be a good person, and not go against their conscience.”
“That God is love, that despair is a sin. Even in his letters from prison, he wrote that he did not feel hatred towards his tormentors. What Putin is doing now is hatred. It’s not even hatred, it’s some kind of Satanism, paganism. What are you going to do with his body? How low will you go, torturing the man you killed? You [Putin] insult believers and atheists, Christians and Muslims.”
“If you really consider yourselves a believer, then know you will answer for all of this – and not just before people. You will also answer for the war you started two years ago, by the way, also using the values of Christianity.”
She ended her plea by saying: “Give back the body of my husband. We want him to be mourned, and then buried humanely in the ground, as is customary in Orthodoxy. Give Alexei back without any conditions. You tortured him alive – now you continue to torture him dead.”
Yulia has made a promise to carry on her husband’s battle against the corruption and tyranny of Putin’s regime. This is the same regime that falsely imprisoned him and attempted to assassinate him with the nerve agent Novichok four years ago.
She is convinced that he was killed by Novichok just last week. The ninth day after death holds great importance in Orthodox Christianity, and supporters of Navalny plan to commemorate this day by visiting major churches and cathedrals in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities.
Aleksander Varapayev, a Russian state investigator, has been accused of intimidating Navalny’s mother into arranging a secret burial for her son. However, it has come to light that he was acting under direct orders from Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the committee and a former university classmate of Putin.
