The Russian government denied the widespread theory that President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Following his death, Navalny’s widow, spokesperson, and friends all asserted that the activist’s death in a Russian prison was a government-sanctioned murder.
“They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably while waiting for the trace of” poison to vanish, Yulia Navalnaya claimed at a press conference Monday.
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Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov grimaces during a combined call-in-show and annual press conference in Moscow, Russia. (Getty Images)
The Kremlin pushed back on these and other accusations during a press conference on Tuesday.
“Of course, these are absolutely unfounded and vulgar accusations against the head of the Russian state,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to a translation from the Moscow Times.
He added, “But taking into account that Yulia Navalnaya was widowed just days ago, I will not comment.”
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Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks during the Munich Security Conference, in Munich, Germany. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Pool Photo /AP)
Navalnaya later responded to the Kremlin’s comments, saying, “I do not give a damn how the press secretary of a murderer comments on my words.”
Asked by reporters for comment about the many arrests reported at memorial events for Navalny, Peskov stonewalled.
“Law enforcement agencies are acting in accordance with the law,” he told the press.
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Russia President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Presidential Council for Science and Education via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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.”