Alexei Navalny: Mother of Putin critic searching for his body after morgue ‘closed’

Published

2 months ago

February 18, 2024

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The death of Alexei Navalny has been confirmed by his spokesperson, but it remains unclear where the body of the Vladimir Putin critic is.

Spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said in a post on X the most prominent face of the Russian opposition to Mr Putin was “murdered” at a remote Arctic penal colony.

She said Mr Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, was informed by authorities that her son had died on 16 February at 2.17pm, local time.

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Prominent Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov added that prison officials told Mr Navalny’s mother that he had died due to “sudden death syndrome”.

But the body of the 47-year-old has not yet been located or released by authorities.

Mr Navalny’s mother was told by a prison official that her son’s body was taken to the nearby city of Salekhard as part of a probe into his death, Ms Yarmysh said.

But when they arrived at the morgue, it was closed, and workers said the body was not there.

Hours later, Ms Yarmysh said lawyers for the politician were told Mr Navalny’s body would not be handed over to his relatives until an investigation into his death had been completed.

She accused the Investigation Committee in Salekhard of “driving us around in circles and covering their tracks” as only hours before they were told the investigation had already been concluded, and nothing criminal had been established.

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported on Friday that Mr Navalny felt sick after a walk and became unconscious at the penal colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region, which is within the Arctic Circle.

More than 340 detained in Russia

Meanwhile, more than 340 people have been detained in Russia since the moment Mr Navalny’s death became public, according to independent human rights organisation, OVD-Info.

This included 230 people across multiple cities who were detained on Saturday.

OVD-Info said others had been detained the day before when they came to lay flowers in memory of Mr Navalny.

Among the held included a priest who went to a memorial in St Petersburg to conduct a service in the politician’s memory.

From Georgia to Germany, people mourn for Navalny

In Russia, authorities moved swiftly to crush any possible resistance in Alexei Navalny’s name; detaining supporters at memorials and trying to sweep away the flowers they left.

But beyond their borders, they couldn’t stop the crowds.

From Georgia to Germany, thousands gathered for Mr Navalny.

In the shadow of the Russian embassy in Berlin, a steady stream of people arrived to lay flowers below a picture of the 47-year-old activist.

I watched a group of three Russian friends huddled to light their candle in the wind.

They told me they had come to pay their respects, acutely aware it was an act being punished back home.

“A lot of my friends want to take flowers for Navalny in Moscow but they can’t do that. I want to do this for my friends and for me,” Polina said.

Among the grieving was Elena who stood quietly as tears rolled down her face.

“He was the last hope of freedom, of peace in Russia. I guess there is no hope anymore,” she explained.

Like Elena, many today said they are not just mourning a man but what he represented to Russia: hope of resistance and change.

In Moscow, social media footage showed a large group of people chanting “shame” as police dragged a screaming woman from the crowd.

Putin ‘should be held accountable’

Hours after Mr Navalny’s death was reported, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, made a dramatic appearance at a security conference in Germany where many world leaders had gathered.

She said that she was unsure if she could believe the news from official Russian sources, “but if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband”.

Reacting, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “moved” by Mrs Navalnaya’s words, adding that Russia has to be held to account.

It came after the UK’s Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said: “We should hold Putin accountable for this. And no one should be in any doubt about the dreadful nature of Putin’s regime in Russia after what has just happened.”

Foreign ministers of the G7 – made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US – have called on Russia to fully clarify the circumstances of Mr Navalny’s death.

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Russian man arrested after two Ukrainians stabbed to death in Germany

Published

2 hours ago

April 29, 2024

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Russian man arrested after two Ukrainians stabbed to death in Germany

A Russian man has been arrested after two Ukrainian men were stabbed to death in southern Germany.

The two Ukrainians were killed at a shopping centre in the village of Murnau in Upper Bavaria.

They were 23 and 36 years old and lived in the southern German county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Shortly after the killings on Saturday evening, the police arrested a 57-year-old Russian on suspicion of murder, German news agency DPA reported.

The names of the victims and the suspect were not released in line with German privacy rules. It is not clear if the three men knew each other.

More than one million Ukrainian refugees came to Germany after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The majority arrived in the first three months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Germany’s federal statistical office.

By October 2022, Ukrainian citizens were the second largest foreign population in Germany after Turkish nationals.

Germany is also home to a significant Russian immigrant community and 2.5 million Russians of German ancestry who mostly moved to the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

World

Aid charity to resume operations in Gaza following killing of seven aid workers

Published

7 hours ago

April 29, 2024

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Aid charity to resume operations in Gaza following killing of seven aid workers

An aid group is to resume its work in Gaza four weeks after suspending operations following the killing of seven workers.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) says it will restart operations in the besieged strip on Monday, delivering food to “address widespread hunger”, including in the north.

It comes following the killing of the WCK workers in an Israeli military strike on 1 April.

Three British nationals, who were part of WCK’s security team, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen, and a Palestinian, were killed in the strike.

An Israeli investigation found that incorrect assumptions, decision-making mistakes and violations of the rules of engagement had resulted in their deaths.

Middle East latest: Hamas releases hostage video

WCK suspended its operations in Gaza following their deaths. They had previously distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza and accounted for more than 60% of all international non-governmental aid.

Erin Gore, the group’s chief executive, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza “remained dire”.

“We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible,” she said.

“We will continue to get as much food into Gaza, including northern Gaza, as possible – by land, air, or sea.”

She said despite assurances by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) of changes to their rules of operations in the wake of the workers’ deaths, their staff still faced the threat of being threatened or killed.

“We have been forced to make a decision: Stop feeding altogether during one of the worst hunger crises ever, ending our operation that accounted for 62% of all International non-governmental-organisation (NGO) aid, or keep feeding knowing that aid, aid workers and civilians are being intimidated and killed,” Ms Gore said.

“These are the hardest conversations, and we have considered all perspectives when deliberating.

“Ultimately, we decided we must keep feeding, continuing our mission of showing up to provide food to people during the toughest of times.”

Strikes on Rafah and Blinken’s visit

It comes as medics said 13 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the southern city of Rafah on Monday.

The strikes on Rafah, where over a million people are sheltering from months of Israeli bombardment, came hours before Egypt was expected to host leaders of Hamas to discuss prospects for a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

On Sunday, Hamas officials said a delegation, led by Khalil al Hayya, the group’s deputy Gaza chief, would discuss a ceasefire proposal handed by Hamas to mediators from Qatar and Egypt, as well as Israel’s response.

Mediators, backed by the US, have stepped up their efforts to conclude a deal amid threats by Israel to invade Rafah.

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Antony Blinken is beginning his seventh diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began more than six months ago.

He will visit Saudi Arabia, where Arab and European foreign ministers have gathered in Riyadh for a meeting of the World Economic Forum, before making stops in Jordan and Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Jordan and Israel, Mr Blinken will focus largely on aid, meeting with various relief organisations, as well as officials in both countries, to underscore the urgent need for more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

On Sunday, the IDF said the amount of aid going into Gaza had increased “significantly” and would be scaled up “even more” in the coming days.

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “Getting aid to the people of Gaza is a top priority – because our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza.”

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Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Published

20 hours ago

April 28, 2024

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Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Ireland is pledging emergency legislation enabling it to send asylum seekers back to the UK.

More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.

Rishi Sunak told Sky News it showed the UK’s Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent after it finally became law last week.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said the threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.

Micheal Martin said the policy was already affecting Ireland because people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.

The former taoiseach told The Daily Telegraph: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”

Simon Harris, Ireland’s latest leader, has asked Ms McEntee to “bring proposals to cabinet to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”, a spokesman said.

Ms McEntee said she will be meeting UK Home Secretary James Cleverly in London on Monday.

“There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration towards Ireland,” she told RTE.

“My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.

“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the home secretary to raise these issues on Monday.”

People are now “worried” about coming to the UK, Rishi Sunak has said.

He told Sky News: “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay here, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”

Mr Sunak said the comments from Irish politicians show that “illegal migration is a global challenge”.

“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe [they] will follow where the UK has led,” he said.

Shadow minister Wes Streeting said it was unlikely a Labour government would bring people back from Rwanda if some are sent there.

“Once people are settled in Rwanda, they’re settled in Rwanda,” he told Sky News, adding it was doubtful that Labour would “unpick that situation”.

Regarding illegal migration in general, he said it required “putting the money that’s gone to Rwanda into the National Crime Agency so we can have proper cross-border policing to tackle the criminal gangs, speeding up the processing of decision-making, making sure we’ve got serious returns agreements with other countries”.

He added: “Those are solutions that can work.”