The President of the United States, Joe Biden has reacted to yesterday’s death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, directly blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin and using the death to lash out at the U.S. House of Representatives for holding up funding for Ukraine.
According to Russian jail officials, Navalny, a ferocious opponent of the Russian president, passed away while incarcerated in the Russian Arctic labour camp. An independent confirmation of the official declaration has not been made.
Federal Prison Service officials were cited by Russian media as claiming that although medical personnel had been called, they were unable to revive 47-year-old Navalny.
In a statement in the Oval Office at the White House which was sighted by Africa Today News, New York, Biden praised Navalny for his courage in continually standing up to Putin, even after he was poisoned, treated overseas and then imprisoned when he returned to Russia.
“He could have lived safely in exile …,” following an assassination attempt in 2020, Biden said. “Instead, he returned to Russia knowing he’d likely be imprisoned, or even killed if he continued his work. But he did it anyway. Because he believed so deeply in his country.”
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Biden said Russian officials will tell their own story, but said, “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
He said Navalny’s death is a reminder of the stakes of this moment and once again appealed to the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on the bipartisan aid package approved this week by the U.S Senate. Biden said “history is watching” the House of Representatives.
“The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten,” Biden said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking Friday at the Munich Security Conference, also blamed Putin for Navalny’s death. “This would be a further sign of Putin’s brutality,” she said. “Whatever story they tell, let us be clear, Russia is responsible.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement Friday that Putin was “a vicious dictator” and that if Navalny’s death was confirmed, “this action is emblematic of Putin’s global pattern of silencing critics and eliminating opponents out of fear of dissent.”
He called for opposition against Russia but did not specifically address military aid to Ukraine.