Navalny’s wife calls for Putin to be punished at global security summit

By Humeyra Pamuk and John Irish

MUNICH (Reuters) -The wife of Alexei Navalny led calls on Friday at a Western security gathering for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be held accountable for the jailed Kremlin opponent’s death.

Hundreds of politicians, military officers and diplomats were in the German city of Munich for the three-day annual conference dubbed the “Davos of Defence”.

The gathering was expected to be dominated by war in Israel and Ukraine as well as fears over U.S. commitment to defence if former President Donald Trump is re-elected.

But it was jolted by the Russian prison service’s report that Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at an Arctic penal colony. Organizers broke the schedule to let Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya speak.

“I thought for a long time if I should come out here or immediately fly to my children,” Navalnaya said, receiving a standing ovation as she came on stage.

“But then I thought what Alexei would do in my place. And I’m sure he would be here, he would be on this stage.”

Navalnaya said she did not know whether to believe Russian authorities. “But if this is true, I want Putin, his entire entourage, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris also told the conference that if confirmed, Navalny’s death would be a further sign of Putin’s brutality. “Whatever story they tell, let us be clear, Russia is responsible.”

Navalnaya met with Blinken on the sidelines of the conference.

The Munich Security Conference comes as worries in Europe grow about U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine fend off Putin’s full-scale invasion and to defending its allies more broadly.

The U.S. House of Representatives is stalling a multi-billion dollar aid package for Kyiv. And Trump, frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, has said he would not defend NATO allies who fail to spend enough on defence.

Harris sought to reassure Europe, saying her and President Joe Biden’s “sacred commitment to NATO remains ironclad” and that their administration would keep pressing to help Ukraine secure the weapons and resources it needs.

RUSSIANS NOT INVITED

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier on Friday lamented a decrease in support from allies, making Germany’s continued strong backing all the more critical. It became the second country to sign long-term security assurances for Kyiv. France is expected to follow later on Friday.

No Russian officials were invited to the conference for the second year in a row.

The conference takes place as the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in which more than 28,000 Palestinians and about 1,430 Israelis have been killed, enters its fifth month with no end in sight.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said officials from European countries that help to fund the occupied Palestinian territories and key Arab and Gulf states would meet on the sidelines of the Munich event to start discussing the future for Israel and the Palestinian people after a potential ceasefire.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to join.

Israel is facing pressure not to continue its offensive into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in Gaza, but Foreign Minister Israel Katz told reporters in Munich it had no choice as it could not leave Hamas there.

When asked where refugees in Rafah would go, he suggested Gaza’s second city Khan Younis.

Israel will also coordinate with neighbouring Egypt on Palestinian refugees and find a way to not harm Egypt’s interests, he said. Some Israeli ministers have advocated the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.

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