The White House announced that President Biden met with the family of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in California on Thursday to convey his “heartfelt condolences” for their loss. Navalny passed away on Thursday.
In a statement describing the meeting with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya, the White House stated, “The President expressed his admiration for Aleksey Navalny’s extraordinary courage and his legacy of fighting against corruption and for a free and democratic Russia in which the rule of law applies equally to everyone.”
The statement used a different spelling of Navalny’s first name. “The President emphasized that Aleksey’s legacy will carry on through people across Russia and around the world mourning his loss and fighting for freedom, democracy, and human rights.”
Photos of the encounter, shared on social media by the White House, show the president embracing Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Navalny. Russian exile Yulia Navalnaya announced her visit to her daughter, a Stanford University student, on Instagram earlier in the day.
Today, I met with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya – Aleksey Navalny’s loved ones – to express my condolences for their devastating loss.
Aleksey’s legacy of courage will live on in Yulia and Dasha, and the countless people across Russia fighting for democracy and human rights. pic.twitter.com/aiCcgTrws3
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 22, 2024
Speaking to reporters in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Biden said, “This morning I had the honor of meeting with Alexey Navalny’s wife and daughter. As to state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage. And it’s amazing how his wife and daughter are emulating that.”
Additionally, the president stated that “sanctions against Putin, who is responsible for [Navalny’s] death, tomorrow” would be announced by his administration. CBS News has learnt that individuals, institutions, and businesses both within and outside of Russia are among the targets.
The United States is set to sanction Russia, its allies, and its military might with more than 500 penalties on Friday, according to officials from the Treasury Department. Officials informed CBS News that these penalties will be the most extensive since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Treasury and State Departments will be the ones to issue the penalties.
Navalny exposed corruption among the Russian elite and fought for democratic reforms; he was Putin’s most vocal critic and opponent at home. Last week, Russian officials made the tragic announcement of his death, which prompted a global expression of sorrow. Mr. Biden quickly assigned blame for his demise to the Kremlin.
The president “affirmed that his Administration will announce major new sanctions against Russia tomorrow in response to Aleksey’s death, Russia’s repression and aggression, and its brutal and illegal war in Ukraine,” according to the White House account, of the meeting with Navalny’s family.
There is still no clear explanation for Navalny’s death. Upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had been recuperating following a failed poisoning attempt, he was apprehended in 2021. He passed away while incarcerated in a prison colony in northern Russia. According to Russian officials, they still don’t know what killed him.
According to Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny’s mother, who spoke on Thursday, officials pushed her into agreeing to a private burial after letting her see her son’s body. “They are blackmailing me, they are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried,” stated the woman. “They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony.”
According to Yulia Navalnaya, the Russian government poisoned her husband with a nerve agent from the Soviet era and then held his body until the poison had completely disappeared. Allegations against the head of the Russian state were described by a Kremlin spokeswoman as “absolutely unfounded, insolent.”
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