The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmytro Peskov, said that the Kremlin will not take into account the demands of the European Union, in particular the head of foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, regarding the organization of an international investigation into the circumstances of the death of Alexei Navalny.
This position of Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, was announced at a briefing on February 20, adding: "We do not accept such demands at all, especially from Mr. Borrell."
Peskov also distanced himself from Yulia Navalny's accusations, calling them "false and unpleasant", in particular the statement about the failure to hand over the body of Alexei Navalny to cover up evidence of his poisoning. The press secretary claims that Vladimir Putin did not see Yulia Navalny's video message.
On Monday, February 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a new title to Valery Boyarnev, the first deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service. This happened three days after the death of Russian opposition leader Oleksii Navalny.
The relevant decree was published on the Official Internet Portal of Legal Information of the Russian Federation.
Boyarnev received the rank of colonel-general of the internal service.
According to the Russian publication "Vazhnye istorii", Boyarnev personally issued an order restricting Navalny's rights. He also commented on the Navalny case in 2021, which is unexpected for high-ranking law enforcement officials.
According to another source, Meduza, Boyarninev will be the first deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service from July 2022. Prior to that, he was the deputy head of this department since 2015 and managed the department responsible for the maintenance of prisoners and pretrial detention centers.
Putin also granted new titles to other officials of the Federal Penitentiary Service by the said decree.
On February 16, 2024, the death of Alexei Navalny was announced in a colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in the Far North of Russia.
On February 19, Yulia Navalna declared that she would "continue the struggle" of her husband and promised to reveal soon why "Putin killed" her husband.
On February 20, Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov responded to Yulia Navalny's accusations, calling them "absolutely baseless accusations." Navalny spent the last three years behind bars. He was detained in January 2021, shortly after his return to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning. According to the results of an investigation by several media outlets, a special unit of the FSB played a key role in his poisoning.
In February 2021, Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. In March 2022, he was sentenced again, this time to 9 years in prison. And in August 2022 - up to 19 years old. In December 2023, he was transferred to a particularly strict prison regime in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
