PUTIN CRACKDOWN Hundreds of Alexei Navalny protesters arrested as David Cameron calls for Putin to be ‘held accountable’ for ‘murder
HUNDREDS of protesters have been arrested after swarming Russian embassies over the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
David Cameron has also scolded Vladimir Putin for his role in Navalny's death saying "we should hold Putin accountable" as he blasted Russia's "dreadful" regime.
The UK Foreign Secretary labelled Navalny, 47, "an incredibly brave fighter against corruption" in Russia before he spoke out against Putin's Russia.
He said: "We should be clear about what has happened here. Putin's Russia imprisoned him, trumped up charges against him, poisoned him, sent him to a Arctic penal colony and now he has tragically died.
"We should hold Putin accountable for this and no one should be in any doubt about the dreadful nature of Putin's regime in Russia after what has just happened."
Then when asked if Putin and Russia should face consequences by Sky News, Cameron made his stance clear.
He said: "There should be consequences... look what Putin's Russia did to him.
"He's died and that is because of the action that Putin's Russia took. No one can look at this regime now and not recognise it for the truly dreadful nature that it has."
RUSSIAN PROTESTS
Russian police say they arrested over 100 people at various memorials across the country since Navalny was pronounced dead by authorities on Friday.
The OVD-Info rights group said as of February 17, "more than 101 people" had been detained across 10 cities.
Including 64 people in Russia's second largest city of Saint Petersburg.
Eleven others were taken away by cops in Moscow as Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Tver all saw protesters get in trouble with the law.
The protests were over the death of Russia's beloved opposition leader.
Prison authorities said Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at the "Polar Wolf" Colony where he was serving a three-decade sentence.
Navalny, Putin's leading domestic critic in Russia, had bravely challenged the tyrant's rule and his horrific war in Ukraine.
Many of his supporters had fears that he would be assassinated while behind bars for his strong support from the public outside of prison.
People were seen gathering across Russia to place flowers at makeshift monuments on Friday - hours after Navalny's death was announced.
This prompted a strong police force to break up any gatherings under Kremlin orders, social media footage showed.
Protests are illegal in Russia under strict anti-dissent laws and authorities have fiercely clamped down on any rallies supporting Navalny for years.
Authorities in the Russian capital said they were aware of calls online "to take part in a mass rally in the centre of Moscow" and warned people against attending.
WORLDWIDE REACTIONS
Protesters gathered outside the London embassy chanting critical slogans against Putin, such as 'Putin in is a murderer', 'the war must stop' and 'love is stronger than the war'.
Many chanted slogans critical of Vladimir Putin, whom they blamed for the activist's death, holding up signs calling him a "killer" and demanding accountability.
One signs read: "Putin in is a murderer."
As two others showed "the war must stop" and "love is stronger than the war".
US President Joe Biden said in remarks from the White House: "Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny's death."
He added: "Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth."
In Berlin, a crowd of around 500 to 600 people gathered on the city's Unter den Linden boulevard chanting in a mixture of Russian, German and English.
Some shouted "Putin to the Hague", referring to the international criminal court investigating possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Police used barriers to close off the road between the Russian embassy and the crowd.
"Alexei Navalny is the leader of the Russian opposition and we always kept hope in his name," said a Russian man draped in a blue-and-white anti-war flag, giving his name only as Ilia.
In Lithuania, formerly run from Moscow but now a member of NATO and the European Union, protesters placed flowers and candles by a portrait of Navalny.
"He was always with us, so it is all surreal," said Lyusya Shtein, 26, a Pussy Riot activist who has lived in Vilnius since leaving Russia in 2022.
"None of us yet understand what happened," she added.
In Russia itself, prosecutors warned Russians against participating in any mass protest in Moscow.
Police watched as some Russians came to lay roses and carnations at a monument to victims of Soviet repression in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters.
Groups also gathered in Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sofia, Geneva and The Hague.
More than 100 protesters stood outside Russia's London embassy, holding placards that called Putin a war criminal.
While in Lisbon hundreds held a silent vigil.
Pavel Elizarov, a 28-year-old Russian living in Portugal, said Navalny had been "a symbol of freedom and hope."
Near the Russian embassy in Paris, where around 100 protesters gathered, Natalia Morozov said Navalny had also been a symbol of hope for her.
What we know so far...
- Officials at the 'Polar Wolf' jail where Navalny was held claim he collapsed during a walk outside and died
- Ukraine's Zelensky and Latvian president Rinkevics claim Putin murdered the Kremlin critic
- The dad-of-two, aged just 47, had sent his wife a heartfelt Valentine's letter days before his reported death
- His mum Lyudmila said she saw Navalny a few days ago and he seemed healthy and cheerful
- Navalny was last pictured appearing in court via video link - he looked thin and had a shaved head
- The Kremlin enemy had spent 308 days locked up in Russia on trumped-up charges - including for extremism and terrorism
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Putin should be 'held accountable'
- Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said she has had no official confirmation of his death - but a lawyer is investigating
Morozov said: "It's hard for me to express my emotions, because I'm really shaken.
"Now we no longer have hope for the beautiful Russia of the future".
Navalny's wife, Yulia, was in Munich on Friday, where a vigil also took place.
She told the Munich Security Conference she could not be sure her husband was dead because "Putin and his government... lie incessantly".
Yulia said that if confirmed she wanted them to know "they will bear responsibility".
On the other side of the Atlantic, at a vigil outside the Russian consulate in New York City, Violetta Soboleva said she had volunteered for Navalny's presidential campaign in 2017.
"I really believed that he's the one and he can lead Russia to a better future," said Soboleva, a Russian studying for her doctorate in New York.
She continued: "And now we've lost this future forever."
Putin's opponents die in mysterious circumstances
By Nick Parker
TRAGIC Navalny is the latest in a long line of Putin opponents and rivals to die in mysterious circumstances.
His death came just six months after the Russian tyrant's last public challenger - Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin - died in a fireball jet smash believed to have been caused by a bomb.
Warlord Prigozhin's days were numbered after he launched a failed coup in which his troops turned on Moscow - and Putin is thought to have directly ordered the air "accident".
Scores of political opponents, oligarchs and insubordinate business chiefs have met similar suspicious fates in recent years as paranoid Putin shored up his power base.
They include politician Boris Nemtsov, killed with six shots in the back and head in February 2015 on a Moscow bridge; top Russian journalist and Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya who was shot dead in an elevator in June 2014 and Alexander Litvinenko who died in agony in London after being poisoned with radioactive polonium tea in 2006.
Putin agents also attempted to kill Russian turncoat Sergei Skripal with Novichok after he fell foul of the Kremlin regime and fled to Salisbury, Wilts.
It comes after tyrant Putin was snapped smirking yesterday.
Putin appeared sickeningly cheerful as he greeted people mere hours later at a public event.
In a press conference, US President Biden had his say on the death of Navalny.
He said: "Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny's death."
"What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin's brutality," Biden continued.
"Putin does not only target the citizens of other countries. He also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people."
Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics raged on X that Navalny was "brutally murdered by the Kremlin".
And Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy raged: "Obviously, Putin killed him".
Navalny, one of Putin's greatest enemies, was locked away on trumped-up charges after a sham trial and has been vocal about his fears of assassination.
He was first picked up by Vlad's brutal police in 2021 after returning to Russia following an assassination attempt.
In total he spent 308 days banged up - and there were reports that a sadistic Putin even demanded to see live footage of the 47-year-old undergoing punishment and being humiliated by guards.
Navalny also went missing from a hellish Russian jail last year - and his supporters warned at the time that he could be executed.
He was later found in one of the toughest prisons in the country in Siberia - known as "the Polar Wolf" colony.
Prison chiefs said his death was confirmed at 2.17pm local time but confusion has clouded the shock news.
Navalny's legal team had received no formal confirmation of his death and his frantic family are still seeking proof that the reports are not more Kremlin lies.
Exiled Russian politician Dmitry Gudkov has fumed that even if Putin did not have Navalny assassinated - his death would still be the tyrant's fault.
"Even if Alexey died from 'natural' causes, they were caused by his poisoning and further prison torture. Blood is on Putin," he fumed.
A statement from prison officials today read: "On February 16, 2024, in correctional colony No. 3, convict Navalny A.A. felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness."
An ambulance reached the brutal jail in just seven minutes - getting to Navalny's side in another two, Interfax reported.
"The doctors who arrived at the scene continued the resuscitation measures that were already being provided by the penal colony's doctors," said the local hospital.
"And they spent more than half an hour. However, the patient died."
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