«I have heard several things that have not been confirmed. But the fact of the matter is that Putin is responsible ." Thus the American president, Joe Biden, regarding the death of the Russian dissident Alexiei Navalny. “I said there will be a price to pay,” Biden said again. And Putin "regardless of whether he ordered it, he is responsible for the circumstances", he specified, "it is a reflection of who he is" and "it cannot be tolerated".

Alexei Navalny's team , meanwhile, has no doubt that the opponent was deliberately killed and accuses the authorities of not wanting to return the body to the family to "hide the traces" of the crime . All this while hundreds of Russians took to the streets in dozens of cities to pay homage to the missing dissident with the police having already arrested almost 400 people.

THE MYSTERY OF THE BODY – The long night journey undertaken by Navalny's mother and his lawyer towards the Arctic district of Yamalo-Nenets, where the IK-3 penal colony where he was imprisoned is located, has not yielded any certain news at the moment, apart from the confirmation of death, officially communicated to the woman. From the city of Salekhard, where they landed, Navalny's mother and the lawyer reached the prison, 50 kilometers away. Here, said the opposition's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, they had to wait two hours before an official came out to tell them that the body had been taken to a morgue in Salekhard , at the disposal of the Investigative Committee, which is conducting the investigation. investigation. When they returned to Salekhard, the two found the morgue closed, and when they asked for information on a telephone number posted on the door, someone replied that the body was not there .

Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, reported that, however, someone had already told his mother in the penal colony that Navalny had died from "sudden death syndrome". While the lawyer, adds Navalny's team, was told that "the cause of death has not been established" and that the body will be held until the end of the investigation. That is, until at least next week, when the results of the histological tests should be available.

Kira Yarmysh's conclusion is clear: « There is no doubt - the spokeswoman stated - that the murder was planned . Now we ask that Navalny's body be handed over to his family, and we appeal to everyone to ask for it with us. This is the most important thing we can do."

THE REACTIONS – Meanwhile, while China refrained from commenting on the incident, judging it "an internal affair of Russia", condemnations from the West continued to arrive. The G7 Foreign Affairs, meeting in Munich under the presidency of Minister Antonio Tajani, expressed "indignation" , denouncing the "unacceptable persecution of political dissent" by Vladimir Putin's regime. In Italy, a bipartisan torchlight procession for Navalny's death is scheduled for tomorrow at 6.30 pm in Rome in Piazza del Campidoglio .

(Unioneonline/vl)

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