She spoke on the same day Navalny's supporters were finally able to find a place for his funeral. His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media that the ceremony will be held in his hometown of Marino, on the southwestern edge of the capital, at 2 p.m. Friday, and he will then be buried in the Borisov cemetery.
“I am not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who came to say goodbye to my husband,” Navalnaya said in her speech, which received long applause.
Since Navalny died suddenly in an Arctic prison colony two weeks ago, the circumstances of his death and plans for his funeral have been the subject of intense speculation, with many supporters saying the Kremlin wants to avoid a public burial attended by crowds.
“Come early,” Yarmysh wrote, referring to the potential chaos.
Navalny's wife, family and colleagues accused Putin of ordering the killing of Navalny, his biggest rival and critic. Navalny survived a poisoning attempt in 2020, which was later proven to have been carried out by Russian state agents. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the allegations as “completely unacceptable” and “vulgar.”
“Putin killed my husband Alexei Navalny. On his orders, Alexei was tortured for three years: he starved to death in a small stone cell, cut off from the outside world. “Then they killed him. Even after that, they abused his body and abused his mother.”
“Last Saturday marked two years since Putin began a full-scale war against Ukraine. She added: “There is a lot of exhaustion, a lot of blood, a lot of disappointment, and Putin is not going anywhere.” “Everything has already been used: weapons, money, sanctions – nothing works.”
Navalnaya said “the worst has happened” – everyone has become accustomed to war – while some in the West began to push for negotiations with Putin. She added that Putin was not acting like an ordinary politician, but rather like a mafia leader.
“If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to get innovative. You have to stop being boring,” she said to applause. “You cannot hurt Putin with another decision or another set of sanctions that are no different from the previous ones. You cannot defeat him by believing that he is a man of principle.” “It has morals and rules.”
She continued: “It is not like that, and Alexei realized that a long time ago. “You are not dealing with a politician, but with a bloody gangster.”
“You and all of us must fight this criminal gang. The political innovation here is the application of methods to combat organized crime, not political competition. Not diplomatic notes, but investigations into financial machinations. Not statements of concern, but the search for mafia partners in your countries, for lawyers and secret financiers.” Who help Putin and his friends hide money.
In her cracking voice, Navalnaya also asked European leaders to work with tens of millions of anti-war Russians living outside the country.
“You must not persecute them, but on the contrary, you must work with them. With us,” she said.
Navalnaya herself cannot attend her husband's funeral. It is also possible that their two children, Zakhar and Daria, will not be able to do so. Russian state media reported that Navalnaya would be arrested upon her arrival, like her husband in 2021.
“The same fate awaits Navalnaya! If she comes to Russia, she will go to prison,” Vladimir Solovyov, the Kremlin’s chief propaganda official, said on his talk show last week.
According to Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, investigators tried to pressure the family into holding a private, secret funeral — and at one point threatened to allow Navalny's body to decompose if they did not comply.
Since Navalnaya was finally able to retrieve her son's body last week, aides to the late politician have reported that it has been impossible to find a place for the funeral.
“Some places say the place is crowded, some places refuse to mention the name ‘Navalny’. In one place, we were told directly that funeral agencies are prohibited from working with us,” Yarmysh wrote on social media on Tuesday.
A close adviser to Navalny, Leonid Volkov, who sat in the European Parliament during Navalny's speech, wrote in a telegram that the pressure campaign against Navalny's family continues..
“Intimidating everyone possible in the chain of organizing farewell parties and funerals… will lead nowhere,” he wrote. “We will do everything we can to ensure that everyone who wants to say goodbye to Alexei can do so: in peace, calm and dignity.”
Beatriz Ríos in Brussels contributed to this report.
