AFP Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Updated Wednesday, February 28, 2024-13:03
Russia The body of dissident Alexei Navalny, finally delivered to his mother
Yulia Navalnaya
, the widow of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, expressed this Wednesday before the European Parliament her fear that the police could detain participants in her husband's funeral, scheduled for Friday in Moscow.
"I don't know if [the funeral] will be peaceful or if the police will arrest those who are present," Navalnaya told the plenary session of the European Parliament, which paid tribute to the deceased Russian opposition figure.
In her speech, Navalnaya attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she defined as "the leader of a criminal organization."
In his opinion, it will not be possible
to affect Putin with sanctions
that are not fundamentally different from those already adopted.
"You can't defeat him thinking that he is a man of principles and morals. He is not like that, and Alexei realized that a long time ago," said Navalnaya, for whom
Putin is a "bloodthirsty gangster
. "
"Alexei was tortured for three years," the widow said before the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Putin "must answer for everything he has done to Alexei," the widow added.
Navalny died in a remote penal colony in the Russian Arctic, and according to his widow Russian authorities "abused his body and abused his mother."
Navalny's funeral will take place on Friday in Moscow, his team said.