The Kremlin rejects Navalny widow’s charges he was killed by Putin as ‘insolent’

Russian President Vladimir Putin. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not see the video in which Alexei Navalny’s widow vowed to continue his fight against the Kremlin, his spokesperson said on Tuesday. The spokesperson also dismissed her allegations that Mr. Putin had killed the country’s opposition leader as “unfounded” and “insolent.”

In the video released on Monday, Yulia Navalnaya accused Mr. Putin of killing her husband in the remote Artic prison and alleged that officials’ refusal to hand over his body to his mother was part of a cover-up.

“They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably while waiting for the trace of” poison to disappear, Ms. Navalnaya said.

She suggested her husband might have been killed with a Novichok-style nerve agent.

‘Cause unknown’

Russian authorities said that the cause of Mr. Navalny’s death on Friday is still unknown and the results of any investigation are likely to be questioned abroad. Many Western leaders have already said they hold Mr. Putin responsible for the death.

“These are absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.