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Vladimir Putin has mentioned the late opposition determine Alexei Navalny’s title for the primary time in public simply minutes after declaring victory within the rigged Russian presidential elections.
Talking at his marketing campaign headquarters hours after exit polls predicted he would win more than 87 per cent of the vote within the sham election, Putin described the loss of life of Mr Navalny as a “unhappy occasion” – earlier than claiming that he had given the all-clear for the opposition determine to be in a prisoner swap.
Mr Navalny died last month within the Arctic Circle penal colony the place was being held on prolonged, trumped up fees of extremism.
The Russian authorities preserve he died of pure causes; Mr Navalny’s allies say he was murdered.
His loss of life got here weeks after he urged Russians to vote for anybody however Putin within the presidential elections.
“As for Mr. Navalny,” Putin mentioned, “Sure, he handed away. That is all the time a tragic occasion.”
In a routine case of Putin whataboutism, he added: “However we have now had different circumstances the place folks died in jail. Doesn’t that ever occur within the USA?”
He then mentioned that his officers had handed on a suggestion to launch Mr Navalny in a prisoner swap just a few days earlier than he died.
Mr Navalny’s group, within the wake of his loss of life, claimed that Putin had been handed their proposal to swap the opposition determine for Vadim Krasikov, a hitman from the Russian secret service (FSB) who’s serving a life sentence in a German jail for murdering an opponent of the Putin regime.
The Kremlin denied this occurred when requested about it final month.
However in his speech on Sunday night, Putin mentioned he “instantly agreed” to the prisoner swap when it was introduced to him.
“I instantly mentioned, I agree,” he claimed. “Sadly what occurred occurred. The situation was that he by no means comes again. It occurs. What are you able to do? That’s life.”
Putin’s feedback brought on fury amongst Mr Navalny’s group.
Kira Yarmysh, Mr Navalny’s spokesperson, posted a phase of Putin’s speech alongside the caption: “Putin killed Alexei Navalny.”
Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations at Mr Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, wrote on X: “I don’t have phrases but. What a cynical, mendacity scum. Unimaginable.”
Critics of the Putin regime have advised it’s telling that the autocrat selected his victory speech to lastly utter Mr Navalny’s title.
After the opposition determine died, however earlier than the presidential elections, Kremlin-controlled state media barely reported on his loss of life.
Whereas the results of the elections was by no means doubtful, the Kremlin had gone to nice lengths to quash any chance of the three days of voting being disturbed. Mr Navalny, greater than another opposition determine, was greatest positioned to incite such disturbance, even from the confines of solitary confinement.
“Putin was afraid and insecure,” says Oleg Kozlovsky, a Russia researcher at Amnesty Worldwide and the co-founder of Oborona, a democratic youth motion in Russia. “It’s telling that the spell which had prevented him from saying Alexei Navalny’s title was solely damaged now.”
He referred to as for a global inquiry into Mr Navalny’s loss of life. “We don’t see Russia exhibiting any intent of doing it,” he mentioned.
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