The widow of Russian lawyer and Putin critic Alexei Navalny has accused the Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband. In a video address published Monday, Yulia Navalnaya said: "Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny."
Recently, Alexei died while being imprisoned. Prison authorities said he died after losing consciousness following a walk in his prison colony in Kharp, 2,000 miles (1,200 kilometres) northeast of Moscow inside the Arctic circle.
However, Alexei's widow has claimed that her husband died due to torment and torture. "Alexei died in a prison colony after three years of torment and torture," Yulia said Monday as quoted by news agency AFP.
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While Alexei's death has grabbed headlines across the globe, Yulia has vowed to continue her husband's work, including his fight against Putin.
"The most important thing we can do for Alexei and for ourselves is to keep fighting, more desperately and more fiercely than before," she said.
{{/usCountry}}"The most important thing we can do for Alexei and for ourselves is to keep fighting, more desperately and more fiercely than before," she said.
{{/usCountry}}"We need to seize every opportunity to fight against war, against corruption, against injustice, to fight for fair elections and the freedom of speech, to fight to take back our country," she added.
Yulia is also determined to bring justice and find out all persons responsible for the alleged killing of her husband.
"We know exactly why Putin killed Alexei three days ago... We will definitely find out exactly who carried out this crime and how it was carried out. We will name names and show faces," she said.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities said Monday the investigation into the death of Alexei was ongoing. "It's ongoing, all the necessary actions are being carried out," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the investigation, adding that Moscow considered a series of "blatantly vulgar statements" about Navalny's death to be "absolutely unacceptable".
Notably, Russian authorities have so far refused to hand over Alexei 's body to his mother and lawyer. Alexei's supporters claim it was a move by the "killers" to "cover their tracks."