Biden says "Putin is responsible for Navalny's death"
US President Joe Biden says he holds Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible after the Russian prison service announced that opposition figure Alexey Navalny has died in prison, CNN reports.
"Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny's death," he said. "Putin does not only target citizens of other countries, as we've seen in what's going on in Ukraine right now — he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people," the president added. The president said he was "outraged" by the news.
Navalny "bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence, and all the bad things that the Putin government was doing. In response, Putin had him poisoned, he had him arrested, he had him prosecuted for fabricated crimes," Biden said.
"Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth," he said.
"He could have lived safely in exile after the assassination attempt on him in 2020, which nearly killed him," he said. "Instead, he returned to Russia — knowing he'd likely be imprisoned, maybe killed if he continued his work. But he did it anyway. Because he believed so deeply in his country, in Russia," the president continued.
