‘Putin is afraid’: Russia won’t drop Navalny ‘terrorist’ status even though he’s dead
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‘Putin is doing this to scare you. He wants you to be afraid even to mention Alexei and gradually forget his name’. A request to remove late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny from a list of “terrorists and extremists” has been rejected despite his death last year, his widow Yulia Navalnaya has revealed – saying that it shows Vladimir Putin is still afraid of her husband.
![[Ms Navalnaya stands in a queue outside the Russian Embassy in Germany, on the final day of Russia’s presidential election]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/14/2024-12-17T095256Z_1159606008_RC2SN6ATDBOX_RTRMADP_3_RUSSIA-NAVALNY-LAWYERS.jpg)
Russia’s financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring, said in a letter published by Ms Navalnaya that her late husband had been criminally investigated for money laundering and financing terrorism. Because it had not been informed of a move to drop the case, Mr Navalny was still on the list, the letter said.
![[Relatives and friends pay their last respects at the coffin of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow last March]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/21/15/SEI193972641.jpg)
Nearly a year has passed since Mr Navalny, Russia’s most prominent political dissident, was announced dead by Russian authorities while serving time in a “special regime” penal colony in central Russia. The 47-year-old had reportedly fallen unwell after a walk at the jail before losing consciousness.
Mr Navalny was serving sentences totalling more than 30 years on a number of charges, widely rejected by the international community as trumped up. Ms Navalnaya believes that Putin is responsible for Mr Navalny’s death and has offered a reward to witnesses who may have evidence that he was murdered. World leaders have lined up to lay blame for the death at Putin’s door.
