It is a decision that raises questions: Less than an hour later, X reinstated it, without explanation. Yulia Navalnaïa created this account on Monday and it had more than 103,000 subscribers and three posts.
In her first message, she announced that she was taking over from her husband in his political fight and accused the Russian authorities of having assassinated the opponent, of having hidden his body and of having waited for traces of the Novichok nerve agent disappears from it. “Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny. [Vladimir] Putin killed the father of my children (…) With him, [Vladimir Putin] wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future,” she said.
On Tuesday, she insisted that she “doesn’t care” that the Kremlin is accusing her of crude remarks by accusing Vladimir Putin of her husband’s death. “I don’t care how the killer’s spokesperson comments on my words. Return Alexei’s body and let us bury him with dignity, don’t stop people from saying goodbye,” she wrote on X.
In a third message, Lioudmila Navalnaïa, the opponent’s mother, addresses the Russian president directly: “I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the solution to this problem depends only on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be returned without delay so that I can bury him in a humane manner,” she says, filmed near the penal colony where he died.
The Kremlin’s reproaches
On Tuesday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, responded to Yulia Navalnaïa’s accusations: “Of course, these are gross and completely unfounded accusations against the Russian head of state, but given that Yulia Navalnaya became a widow a few days ago, I will not comment,” he said.
The Kremlin spokesperson also considered justified the arrests of people paying tribute to Alexeï Navalny by peacefully laying flowers in front of monuments in memory of victims of Soviet political repression. “The police act within the framework of the law,” he justified.
The team of Alexeï Navalny’s widow requested explanations from Elon Musk, the owner of the platform. In the meantime, Yulia Navalnaïa continues to communicate on the Telegram account of her husband’s team.
