EU Parliament: remembering Alexei Navalny. Yulia Navalnaya, “Putin must answer for what he has done to Russia and to my husband”

(Strasbourg) “Putin must answer for what he has done to my country. Putin must answer for what he has done to a neighbouring peaceful country”, Ukraine. “And Putin must answer for everything he has done to Alexei”. Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the Russian dissident killed in prison, does not mince her words in her address to the European Parliament. “My husband will never see what a beautiful Russia of the future will look like, but we must see it. I will do my best to make his dream come true: the evil will fall, and the beautiful future will come”. An address, hers, interrupted by many rounds of applause. Emotional, with tears in her eyes, Navalnaya said: “After Putin tried to kill Alexei the first time, we lived in southern Germany for several months. Alexei was recovering from poisoning, learning to walk and write again. We had long walks, sometimes we went on short trips. During one of these trips, we went to Strasbourg with our children… Now, my husband is dead. I have come back to Strasbourg, but I am no longer here with my family. Now I am here to address you and, through the European Parliament, all of Europe”. “I thought that in the 12 days since Alexei’s death I would have had time to prepare for this address. But first we spent a week retrieving Alexei’s body and organising a funeral. Then I chose the cemetery and the coffin. The funeral will take place tomorrow and I do not know yet if it will be peaceful or if police will arrest those who come to say goodbye to Alexei”.
Valentina Bombelli