Moscow:

Russia on Thursday added opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya to its list of “terrorists” and “extremists,” two days after it issued an arrest warrant for the exiled dissident.

Navalnaya has vowed to continue the work of her husband Alexei Navalny, Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s main opponent who died in an Arctic prison in unclear circumstances in February.

Her personal details appeared Thursday in an online blacklist maintained by Rosfinmonitoring, a state agency designed to combat the financing of people and organisations Moscow deems “terrorists” or involved in “extremist activity”.

Russian officials frequently apply such labels to opposition figures and those who campaign against the Kremlin or its offensive on Ukraine.

Navalny’s organisations were outlawed in Russia and are labelled “extremist”.

The opposition leader himself was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges of “extremism.”

A court in the capital Moscow on Tuesday ordered Navalnaya arrested in absentia, also on charges of “extremism.”

Following her husband’s death, Navalnaya, 47, vowed to take up his work and has lobbied against Putin’s government from abroad.

“If they’re making such a fuss, then Yulia is doing everything right,” Kira Yarmysh, Navalnaya’s press secretary said on social media after she was added to the blacklist.

Navalnaya, an economist, stood by her husband as he galvanised mass protests in Russia, flying him out of the country when he was poisoned before defiantly returning to Moscow with him in 2021, knowing he would be jailed.

Like much of Russia’s opposition, Navalnaya lives in exile and would be detained if she set foot in Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ottawa:

Canada announced new sanctions on Sunday against six Russian officials following the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny last month in an Arctic prison colony.

The sanctions target “senior officials and high-ranking employees of Russia’s prosecution, judicial and correctional services,” a statement by Canada’s foreign affairs department said.

The six people “were involved in the violation of Mr. Navalny’s human rights, his cruel punishment and ultimately, his death,” it said.

“Alongside our partners, Canada will maintain pressure on the Russian government to conduct a full and transparent inquiry into the death of Mr. Navalny,” Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement.

“This increased pressure on the Russian government sends a clear signal that human rights must be unequivocally respected.”

After the death of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic, the Canadian government summoned Russia’s ambassador to “demand a full and transparent investigation” into his death.

Navalny died on February 16 in unclear circumstances in a penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism.” He was 47 years old.

His family and allies have accused the Kremlin of ordering him killed and Western leaders have said Putin is “responsible” for his death.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, on Saturday demanded that Russian authorities release his body for burial and accused a “demonic” Russian President Vladimir Putin of “torturing” his corpse.

In a six-minute video posted on YouTube, Navalnaya accused Putin of holding her husband’s body “hostage”, and questioned Putin’s often-professed Christian faith.

Navalny’s mother Lyudmila said on Friday that Russian investigators were refusing to release his body from a morgue in the remote Arctic city of Salekhard until she agreed to lay him to rest without a public funeral.

She said an official had told her that she should agree to their demands, as Navalny’s body was already decomposing.

On Saturday, Navalny aides said that authorities had threatened to bury him in the remote prison colony where he died unless his family agreed to their conditions.

In the video, an emotional Yulia Navalnaya claimed that Putin personally was responsible for the whereabouts of Navalny’s body, and that he was “torturing” Navalny in death as he had in life.

“We already knew that Putin’s faith was fake. But now we see it more clearly than ever before,” said Navalnaya, dressed in black.

“No true Christian could ever do what Putin is now doing with Alexei’s body.”

Since returning to the Russian presidency in 2012, Vladimir Putin has positioned himself as a defender of traditional, conservative values against what he portrays as corrosive Western liberalism.

He has also trumpeted his closeness to Russia’s Orthodox Church, regularly appearing at services around religious festivals, and speaking of his personal faith.

Navalnaya said her husband had been a devout Christian, who attended church and had fasted for Lent even while in prison. She said his political activism had been inspired by Christian values.

Concluding her video, she said: “Give us back the body of my husband. We want to hold a funeral service and bury him in a humane way, in the ground, as is customary in Orthodox Christianity.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)