Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya.Image: screenshot:instagram
Two years after the death of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, people in Russia and other countries are now remembering the opposition leader.
02/16/2026, 05:2502/16/2026, 05:25
According to the Navalny team working in exile abroad, commemorative events are planned in more than 20 countries. In Germany alone, a dozen cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig, are remembering the opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was tortured to death in a penal camp in the Arctic region on February 16, 2024.
People can lay flowers at Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, where Navalny’s grave is. Rallies in Russia are banned.
Yulia Navalnaya, the politician’s widow, accuses Putin of murder. Navalnaya, who is continuing her husband’s political work, assumes that her husband was killed in a prison camp after several failed attacks using a nerve agent. In 2020, Navalny had barely survived an assassination attempt using the chemical weapon Novichok.
Minister Wadephuhl speaks of poisoning
Navalnaya announced laboratory results in Munich on Saturday, according to which her husband was killed with a nerve agent. We now have proof that Putin is a murderer, she said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) was shocked and spoke of poisoning. According to his own statements, Navalnaya wants to appear at a rally in Paris today.
Russian authorities claim that Navalny died of natural causes. They had not released his body for days, despite requests from Navalny’s mother. It was therefore feared that any traces of poison might no longer be detectable. It is unclear how Navalny’s tissue samples ended up in the West.
Amnesty demands clarification of the circumstances of his death
Human rights activists criticize the lack of information in Russia. “To this day, the Russian authorities are covering up the circumstances of his death,” explains Julia Duchrow, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany. At the same time, the power apparatus is conducting a “merciless campaign” against Navalny’s supporters. His lawyers are imprisoned. “This systematic repression shows how uncompromising the Russian state is against any form of peaceful criticism,” she said. Any criticism of the government is criminalized. Dukhrow appealed to the Russian authorities to release the detainees and overturn “unjustified convictions”. At the same time, she called on the federal government to help politically persecuted people from Russia through flexible visa and residence regulations.
Thousands of political prisoners
Navalny was one of thousands of political prisoners in Russia, only some of whom Putin has so far released in exchange for Russians imprisoned in the West. Human rights activists believe that many prisoners’ lives are in danger in Russian prison camps – due to torture or other circumstances criticized as inhumane.
The human rights organization Memorial assumes that Russia is holding at least 5,027 people in captivity for political reasons. Memorial maintains a roll call list. «That is a minimal estimate. “We assume that in reality there could be at least twice as many prisoners,” it said in a statement. (sda/dpa)