Navalnaya squarely blamed Putin for Navalny’s death – a belief shared by many Western officials – and demanded the Russian president be brought to justice.

“There should be another person in my place, but this person was killed by Vladimir Putin,” she said in the later televised address. “Putin killed the father of my children, Putin took away the most precious thing I had, the closest and most beloved person – but Putin also took Navalny from you.”

She called on his followers to keep up the fight. And she called on European leaders to refuse to recognize upcoming presidential elections in Russia, where Putin is the virtually unchallenged candidate.

After her comments, Elon Musk’s social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, yanked her account. However, the company restored it later, saying its removal was a mistake.