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Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, takes part in a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium February 19, 2024.
Navalny’s widow continues his fight for freedom
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, vowed to carry on her late husband's activism in defiance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she blames for Navalny's death.
"Vladimir Putin killed my husband," Navalnaya said in a heartrending video message. "Putin killed … half of my heart and half of my soul … But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up. … The main thing that we can do for Alexei and ourselves is to keep fighting.”
Navalny died at an Arctic penal colony, allegedly from “sudden death syndrome.” But his mother has been denied access to his body, and his widow has accused authorities of waiting for the Novichok nerve agent – the same poison used on Navalny in 2020 – to dissipate from his corpse. The UK and the US have called for Navalny’s body to be released, and the EU has called for an independent international investigation into his death.
What’s next. The European Union is considering imposing further sanctions on Russia, and Britain has also threatened unspecified consequences. President Joe Biden said it was clear Putin had killed Navalny and the US was looking at a "number of options." In contrast, Donald Trump’s first public comment on Navalny’s death did not blame, or even name, Putin.
Europe’s last dictator, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
Frequently called Europe's last dictator, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Lukashenko has sailed smoothly to victory in all six elections he's stood in, despite widespread corruption and fraud in each one. But in 2020 the biggest threat so far to Lukashenko's tight grip on government came in an unlikely package—a former schoolteacher and stay at home mom, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. After the election result was finalized, Lukashenko claimed victory, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets, and Tsikhanouskaya leads the opposition in exile. Lukashenko recently took his boldest move yet, diverting a plane en route from Greece to Lithuania to arrest another Belarusian dissident. Ian Bremmer discusses whether a democratic transition is remotely possible in Belarus on GZERO World.
Watch the episode: The fight for democracy in Europe's last dictatorship
- Life under dictatorship in Belarus - GZERO Media ›
- Flight diversion in Belarus is a criminal act - GZERO Media ›
- What the EU will — and won't — do about Belarus - GZERO Media ›
- Belarus protesters vs “Psycho 3%” - GZERO Media ›
- Belarus president exploiting migrants to pressure EU on sanctions - GZERO Media ›
Will sanctions work against Lukashenko?
Are the European Union's sanctions against Belarus effective? The initial European response to the fraudulent election in Belarus was swift, but didn't go far enough, said opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, emboldening President Alexander Lukashenko to think he could continue to act with impunity and even hijack a Ryanair plane. The EU has stated that while it wants to impose sanctions that will punish the Belarusian president and the government, they don't want to hurt the Belarusian people - but Tsikhanouskaya affirmed that sanctions are the leverage that people on the ground are asking for. "People don't feel safe, and they want to end the regime as soon as possible," she told Ian Bremmer in an interview on GZERO World.
Watch the episode: The fight for democracy in Europe's last dictatorship