Biden meets Navalny's widow before new sanctions against Moscow are announced

"A man of incredible courage": Joe Biden presentedé Thursday in person his condolences to the widow and &agrav; the daughter of Alexeï Navalny, during a private meeting at San Francisco which shortly precedes the announcement of new American sanctions against Russia.

The American president, on the electoral campaign trail in California since Tuesday, spoke away from the press with Yulia and Dacha Navalnaïa. The latter, daughter of the Russian opponent who died in detention, studies at Stanford University in California.

“I had the honor of meeting the wife and the daughter of Alexei Navalny,” said the 81-year-old democrat during a very brief intervention in front of the cameras after the interview. “He was a man of incredible courage and it’s extraordinary to see how his wife and daughter reproduce that.”

– “Blackmail” –

The White House released two photos from the meeting, one of which shows Joe Biden hugging Yulia Navalnaïa, who promised to continue her husband's fights.

Photo released by the White House, February 22, 2024, of American President Joe Biden (c) meeting Yulia (d) and Dasha Navalnaïa, the widow and daughter of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in prison in San Francisco, in California © White House – HANDOUT

The 81-year-old democrat once again accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being “responsible for the death” of his opponent.

The White House reiterated that the United States would unveil “major” sanctions against Russia on Friday, in response to the death and to mark two years since the invasion of Ukraine.

Washington at the same time called on the Russians, through a spokesperson for the American executive, John Kirby, to “return” Navalny's remains to his mother Lyoudmila Navalnaïa, who accused the authorities to “blackmail” her in order to bury her in secret.

In the 2010s, before the repressive machine completely fell on him, Alexeï Navalny managed to mobilize crowds, particularly in Moscow, and, despite the repression which decimated the opposition, a public funeral could mobilize his supporters.

Death of Alexeï Navalny: Russian penitentiary center no. 3 © AFP – Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA, Valentina BRESCHI

“They want everything to be done secretly, without ceremony, they want to take me to the confines of a cemetery, near a fresh grave, and tell me 'here lies your son'. I don't I don't agree with that,” said Lyoudmila Navalnaïa, in a video broadcast on Thursday.

– “Hysteria” –

The West has piled on embargo measures and financial reprisals against Russian officials and entities since the start of the war in Ukraine.

For many experts, the world's leading power and its allies no longer have a myriad of options, while Russia has put in place various systems circumvention, while finding weapons supplies from Iran and North Korea.

Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny appears on a screen via video link during a hearing from the IK-3 penal colony in the Arctic, on January 11, 2024 in Moscow © AFP – Vera Savina

The US Justice Department already announced indictments of Russian oligarchs on Thursday, while the UK unveiled measures against more than 50 personalities and companies.

EU countries agreed on Wednesday on a 13th package of sanctions.

Alexei's team Navalny, who died after three years of imprisonment in increasingly trying conditions, accuses the Kremlin of having had him killed and of seeking to cover up all traces on this subject.

< p>Europeans and Americans, for their part, considered that Vladimir Putin and his government were responsible for his death, accusations described by Moscow as “gross and unfounded”. The Russian president has not made public comments on this affair.

The West “acts as if it were prosecutor, judge and executioner at the same time. “hysteria regarding Navalny's death proves it (…), these people have no right to interfere in our internal affairs”, said again Thursday, in Brazil, on the sidelines of a meeting of the G20, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov.

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