The account of Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s widow, on When your account @yulia_navalnaya is consulted, the social network displays the message: “Account blocked (…)” Magnate Elon Musk’s network did not initially explain the reason for this decision.
In a video released on Monday, she accused Putin of killing her husband in the remote Arctic prison and claimed that officials’ refusal to hand over his body to her mother was part of a cover-up.
“They cowardly and meanly hide his body, refuse to hand him over to his mother and lie miserably while waiting for the trail of poison to disappear,” Navalnaya said. She suspected her husband might have been killed with a Novichok-style nerve agent.
X suspended Yulia Navalnaya’s account, which she created after her husband’s death, allegedly for violating the platform’s rules. pic.twitter.com/eY51csvWgj
– NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 20, 2024
Navalnaya spoke in a sometimes broken voice about her husband’s life and suffering and assured that she would take his place.
“Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny. Putin killed the father of my children. (…) With him he wanted to kill our spirit, our freedom, our future,” she said. “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalni. I will continue for our country, with you. I ask everyone to be by my side (…). “It’s not a shame to do little, it’s a shame to do nothing.” “It’s a shame to be afraid,” he explained.
Russian authorities said the cause of Navalny’s death was still unknown on Friday that the results of an investigation are likely to be questioned abroadeither. Many Western leaders have already said they blame Putin for the death.
“These are absolutely unfounded and outrageous accusations against the Russian head of state,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
VIDEO: Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya accuses President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband and vows to “name and show faces” of the people she claims are responsible for his death, three days after Navalny died in an Arctic prison. pic.twitter.com/RYcu495EzM
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 20, 2024
Navalyana, victim of fake news
After the death of the Kremlin’s main opponent was announced, Yulia Navalnaya vowed to continue her late husband’s fight despite being targeted by fake news and online rumors aimed at discrediting her.
Navalny spent three years in prison and survived a poisoning in 2020, which he blamed on the Kremlin. During his imprisonment, he spent almost 300 days in a disciplinary cell. Just hours after prison authorities announced his death on Friday, A photo of his smiling widow with another man on the beach was posted online.
The comments claimed or implied that the photo was current and accused him of faking sadness in his public appearances.
“On the day of Navalni’s death, Yulka, his grieving widow, was resting on the beach!” reads a comment next to the picture.
The photo was also published on various social networks in English, German and Serbo-Croatian. However, this photo of Navalnaya is not current. After an investigation, fact-checkers discovered that the image was first posted in August 2021 on the Instagram account of Evgeny Chichvarkin, a 49-year-old Russian billionaire.
“With the first lady of the beautiful Russia of the future @yulia_navalnaya Libertad @navalny!” he wrote, locating the photo in Jurmala, Latvia.
Chichvarkin, co-founder and former owner of the main Russian mobile operator Euroset, fled to the United Kingdom in 2008. He was accused of kidnapping and extortion and was the subject of an international search warrant and extradition request until 2011, when Russia withdrew the charges. He is currently a wine merchant and He has become an ardent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He was a friend of Navalni and, according to the press, helped finance his fight and part of his medical costs after his poisoning in 2020. The publication of his photo with Yulia Navalnaya was widely commented on at the time. In an interview with an independent radio station, the businessman explained with a touch of irony: “People are jealous, they would also like to go for a walk by the sea with Yulia Navalnayaa beautiful and strong woman, possibly a first lady.”
“Unfortunately, Alexei was imprisoned, but no one imprisoned her,” he added.
Yulia Navalnaya is regularly the subject of rumors aimed at discrediting her or her late husband. The 47-year-old is also accused online of being a “political ‘escort'”.using the photo in which she is seen with Chichvarkin or the statement of a woman claiming to be her former assistant.
This claim was spread primarily by the website pravda-fr.com, which, according to Viginum, the French anti-terror organization, is part of a “structured and coordinated” network of 193 websites spreading Russian propaganda in Europe and the United States digital interference.
Other internet accounts circulated photos of invoices from hotel reservation site Booking to support the allegations. But according to Eliot Higgins, founder of the digital investigative medium Bellingcat, the document presented was a forgery.
dmr