Only One Way to Stop Putin – Navalnaya to European Parliament

Speaking to the European Parliament on Wednesday, Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who recently died in prison, said that the tried methods of dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t work.

“Putin is capable of anything and you cannot negotiate with him,” Navalnaya said according to a report by Radio Svoboda, describing the death of her husband as a “public murder.”

The widow called on world leaders to agree on how to deal with Putin.

“Last Saturday was two years since Putin started a full-scale war against Ukraine. Brutal and sneaky war. The whole world rushed to Ukraine’s aid. But two years have passed. There is much exhaustion, much blood, much disappointment, and Putin has gone nowhere. Everything has already been used: weapons, money, sanctions. And nothing is working. And the worst has happened — everyone got used to the war,” Navalnaya said.

The widow said that Putin must answer for the death of her husband and for the invasion of Ukraine, “a neighboring peaceful country.”

“If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator. And you have to stop being boring. You can't hurt Putin with another resolution or another set of sanctions that is no different from the previous ones. You can't defeat him by thinking he's a man of principle who has morals and rules. And Alexei realized that a long time ago. You are not dealing with a politician, but with a bloody monster. Putin is a leader of an organized criminal gang. This includes poisoners and assassins but they're just puppets. The most important thing is the people close to Putin — his friends, associates and keepers of mafia money."

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Navalnaya said that the West has to understand that it is not going up against a country or a politician, but rather a criminal organization.

To combat Putin, the same methods used to combat organized crime must be employed, she said.

“No diplomatic notes, but investigations into the financial machinations. Not statements of concern, but a search for mafia associates in your countries, for the discreet lawyers and financiers who are helping Putin and his friends to hide money.”

The widow said that her allies are those Russians who oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin.

Alexei Navalny was reported  dead on Feb. 16 by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service. 

He had been held at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia.

Navalny had been imprisoned since early 2021 when a Moscow City Court sentenced him to 19 years in a prison colony for “extremism” in August 2023.

Representatives of the colony where Navalny was located told the anti-corruption politician's mother that he died of sudden death syndrome.

On Feb. 25, the head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov stated that Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny had died of natural causes, namely a blood clot.

Maria Pevchikh, the chair of the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Alexei Navalny, said on Feb. 26 that an agreement had been made to swap Navalny  in a prisoner exchange, but he died while the negotiations were in the final stages.