WASHINGTON: United States President Joe Biden directly blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday (Feb 16) for the reported death of Alexei Navalny in prison, describing the Kremlin critic as a "powerful voice
US President Joe Biden speaks after it was reported Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most formidable domestic opponent, fell unconscious and died at the "Polar Wolf" Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade jail term, during brief remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington on Feb 16, 2024.
Asked in 2021 after meeting Putin in Switzerland, what would happen were Navalny to die, Biden said he told the Russian leader that Moscow would face"devastating" consequences. Biden recalled that Navalny had been poisoned while in exile and had then returned to Russia despite knowing the risks to his safety."Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth," Biden said."God bless Alexei Navalny, his courage will not be forgotten."Navalny's death after three years in detention and a poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin deprives Russia's opposition of its figurehead at a time of intense repression and the invasion of Ukraine.
Democrat Biden said Navalny's death meanwhile showed the need for Republicans in the US House to stop blocking a multi-billion-dollar war aid package for Ukraine.
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