Putin’s inauguration: – Liar, thief and murderer

Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya speaks on Tuesday to her supporters in connection with the presidential inauguration of Vladimir Putin.

– Our country is led by a liar, thief and murderer. But this will end, she says in the video, translated by Reuters.

She exhorts her supporters not to give up.

– We cannot stop fighting.

Navalnaya has taken on a leadership role for the movement of her husband Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in Russia on February 16 this year.

He was clearly the most high-profile opposition figure in Russia, and emerged as one of the leaders of the Russian protest movement in 2011.

He has been in penal colonies in Russia since he was arrested upon arrival in Russia in 2021.

Widow Julia and the couple’s two children live in exile abroad.

Navalny’s death took place just weeks before Putin took a predictable landslide victory in Russia’s presidential election in mid-March. The election is widely considered to have been unfree, and the only real opposition candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, was denied the chance to run against Putin.

On Tuesday, Putin will be sworn in for his fifth presidential term in Russia.