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Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny
»I thought that within the 12 days since Alexei's murder I would have time to prepare for this speech.
But first it took us a week to get his body and organize a funeral.
And then I had to choose the cemetery and the coffin.
The funeral will take place the day after tomorrow and I don't know yet whether it will be peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who want to say goodbye to my husband.
Last Saturday marked two years since Putin launched a war against Ukraine, a brutal and treacherous war. The whole world came to Ukraine's aid, but now two years have passed. There is a lot of exhaustion, a lot of blood, a lot of disappointment, and Putin hasn't gone away. Everything has already been used – weapons, money, sanctions. Nothing works.
The worst thing ever happened. Everyone has gotten used to the war. Here and there people are starting to say: Well, at some point we have to come to an agreement with Putin. And then Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny.
On his orders, Alexei was tortured for three years. He was left to starve in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world, denied visits, telephone calls and even letters. And then they killed him.
And even after that, they abused his body and his mother. In a way, the public murder once again showed everyone that Putin is capable of anything and that you cannot negotiate with him.
If you want to defeat Putin, you have to reinvent things. You have to stop being boring. You can't hurt Putin with another resolution or sanctions package that's no different than the ones before. You cannot defeat him if you think of him as a man of principles, morals, or rules. He's not like that, and Alexei realized that a long time ago. You are not dealing with a politician, but with a bloody monster.
Putin must answer for what he did to my country. Putin must answer for what he did to a neighboring, peaceful country. And Putin must answer for what he did to Alexei.
My husband will never see what the beautiful Russia of the future will look like, but we must see it. And I will do my best to make his dream come true. Evil will fall and the beautiful future will come. Thank you."
Axe