At global security summit, Navalny’s wife calls for Putin to be punished

The wife of Alexei Navalny leads calls on leaders at a Western security gathering for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be held accountable for the jailed Kremlin opponent’s death.

Hundreds of politicians, military officers and diplomats were in the German city of Munich for the three-day annual conference dubbed the “Davos of Defense.”

The gathering was expected to be dominated by war in Israel and Ukraine as well as fears over US commitment to defencs if former President Donald Trump is re-elected.

But it was jolted by the Russian prison service’s report that Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at an Arctic penal colony. Organizers broke the schedule to let Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya speak.

“I thought for a long time if I should come out here or immediately fly to my children,” Navalnaya says, receiving a standing ovation as she came on stage.

“But then I thought what Alexei would do in my place. And I’m sure he would be here, he would be on this stage.”

Navalnaya says she did not know whether to believe Russian authorities. “But if this is true, I want Putin, his entire entourage, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband.”