“If you want to beat Putin, look for his mafia friends” Reports: Navalny lawyer arrested in Russia

When Alexei Navalny was recovering in Germany after the poison attack three years ago, they once went to Strasbourg together. It was one of their favorite European cities and they really wanted to show it to their children.

Now Julia Navalnaya is back. But instead of walking the streets of Strasbourg’s Old Town with her family, she stands at the lectern in the European Parliament and talks about her late husband’s funeral, which will take place in Moscow this Friday.

Everything was organized, the cemetery and the coffin were selected. However, Navalnaya doubts whether the ceremony can take place as planned: “I’m not sure if everything will be peaceful or if the police will not come and arrest those who want to say goodbye to Alexei.” The Kremlin critic died on February 16 at the age of 47 in a Siberian prison camp.

Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly accused her of directly murdering her husband. For three years, Navalny was tortured on Putin’s orders, locked in a small concrete cell, cut off from the outside world. No visits, no phone calls and eventually even no letters. “And then Putin had him killed,” Navalnaya said.

Many are now desperate and feel that Putin is invincible. But that is not true. To defeat him, you must follow her husband’s example. He was an ‘inventor’. He repeatedly developed new ideas to circumvent Putin’s censorship and, despite everything, inspire millions of people.

She advised the EU the same: “If you want to beat Putin, you have to become an inventor. You have to stop being boring.”

Navalnaya takes over her husband’s fight

Putin is not a politician, but a ‘bloodthirsty gangster’ and ‘leader of a criminal gang’. The people in his immediate environment are crucial: his friends, his business partners, the guardians of his mafia money.

There is a need for investigation into the financial machinations and “the search for mafia partners in their countries, the discreet lawyers and financiers who help Putin and his friends hide their money.”

Navalnaya turned to herself and reiterated that she would continue her husband’s struggle: “I will do my best to make his dream come true. Evil will fail and Russia’s bright future will come.