Biden says Navalny death is ‘proof of Putin’s brutality’

President Joe Biden on Friday said Russian president Vladimir Putin is responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who is reported to have died in a Russian penal colony in Siberia after several years of imprisonment for opposing Mr Putin’s regime.

In remarks delivered from the White House before he departed for an event in Ohio, Mr Biden said he was “not surprised” and “outraged” by reports that Navalny had died.

He described the late anti-corruption activist as having “bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence and all the bad things that Putin’s government was doing”.

“In response, Putin had him poisoned. He had him arrested and prosecuted for fabricated crimes,” then “sent to prison and held in isolation,” said Mr Biden, who added that it was “kind of amazing” that Navalny kept up his criticism of the Putin regime from behind bars.

“Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth,” Mr Biden said, recalling how Navalny could have remained safe in exile following a 2020 poisoning attempt on his life by Russian security services but chose to return to his homeland even at the risk of being arrested and killed.

“He did it anyway, because he believed so deeply in his country and Russia… but make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” he said. “What happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality”.

Mr Biden continued to eulogise Navalny and compare him favourably to the man he opposed, Mr Putin, telling reporters that the Russian people would mourn Navalny as having been “so many things that Putin was not”.

“He was brave, he was principled, he was dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law existed and where it applied to everybody,” he said.

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