Alexei Navalny: Joe Biden says Putin and ‘his thugs’ responsible for death – latest updates | World news

Joe Biden cautioned that the US was still awaiting formal confirmation of Alexei Navalny’s death, but that there was little reason to doubt the reported death of one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics was not true.

The US president also used Friday’s White House address to prod lawmakers in Washington DC, who have been stalling on a funding package to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

This tragedy reminds us of the stakes in this moment to provide the funding so Ukraine can keep defending itself against Putin’s vicious onslaught and war crimes.

You know, there was a bipartisan Senate vote that passed overwhelmingly in the United States Senate to fund Ukraine. History is watching. History is watching the House of Representatives.

The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten. It’s true down the pages of history, it really is. It’s consequential. The clock is ticking. And this has to happen. We have to help now.

Biden took a swipe at the former president Donald Trump, who caused a furore in a campaign speech at the weekend when he said he would encourage Russia to attack Nato countries that weren’t contributing enough financially to support the alliance.

We have to realize what we’re dealing with. All of us should reject the dangerous statements made by the previous president that invited Russia to invade our Nato allies if they weren’t paying up.

He said if an ally did not pay their dues, he encouraged Russia to, quote, ‘do whatever the hell they want’.

I guess I should clear my mind a little bit and not say what I’m really thinking, but let me be clear. This is an outrageous thing for a [former] president to say. I can’t fathom it.

As long as I’m president, America stands by our sacred commitment to our Nato allies.

Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin is wholly responsible for the death in a Russian jail of Alexei Navalny.

Speaking at the White House, in his first comments following news that one of the Russian leader’s most vocal critics was dead, the US president said “like millions of people around the world”, he was “literally not surprised and outraged by the reported death of Alexei Navalny”

Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.

Putin is responsible. What has happened and evolving is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world. 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.

A spokesperson for Alexei Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, said on Friday afternoon that reports of his death in a Russian prison are “most likely true”.

Yarmysh was speaking on her YouTube channel. She said Navalny’s relatives and lawyers will travel early on Saturday to the Siberian penal colony where he was in detention:

Before [the attorney arrives] we do not have any verification, so we can not officially confirm or deny statements by all the Kremlin agencies that Alexei Navalny is dead.

But really, we all understand full well that if [Russian press official Dmitri] Peskov is commenting and Putin and the rest – this cannot be an accident or a mistake. So, most likely it’s all true.

Lisa O’Carroll

The jailed former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili has expressed his sorrow at Alexei Navalny’s death and called for the release of other political prisoners in Russia.

In a statement issued to reporters in Brussels, he said:

Alexei Navalny was a great hero of the resistance against the Putin regime. His death is a great tragedy but was seen coming for some time.

Alexei and I had our disagreements in the past but I admired his courage and huge talent, and greatly appreciated him expressing his solidarity with me over my mistreatment in prison at the hands of the Putin-backed regime of the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.

I appeal now to the West and participants of the Munich Security Conference to try to save at least Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, and other political prisoners of the Russian regime.

Also, try to save me. I am also the personal prisoner of Vladimir Putin and I have been poisoned in captivity while the world has looked on. Am I the next on Putin’s death row?

Saakashvili, leader of the Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was jailed after returning from exile on charges that human rights groups denounced as politically motivated.

The European Union says it will do whatever it can to hold Russia, and its president, Vladimir Putin, accountable for the death of Alexei Navalny, the EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, and vice-president, Josep Borrell, said in a joint statement:

He was slowly murdered by President Putin and his regime, who fear nothing more than dissent from their own people.

We will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account.

The two commission leaders demanded Russia establish all facts around Navalny’s death and “immediately release all other political prisoners”, according to the Associated Press.

The White House says Joe Biden will make remarks about Alexei Navalny’s death at 12pm ET (5pm GMT).

The US president, who had been pressing lawmakers in Washington DC to approve funding for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion, is expected to be highly critical of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Earlier today, the vice-president, Kamala Harris, spoke in Germany about the “brutality” of Putin’s regime.

We’ll bring you Biden’s comments as he makes them.

Pjotr Sauer

Impromptu vigils have been announced by pro-democracy Russian organizations across cities in Europe and the US.

In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a crowd was seen holding candles or their mobile phone torches and shouting “Navalny, Navalny!”

Footage on social media also showed people laying flowers next to a spontaneous memorial for Navalny in the Russian city of Kazan.

In Moscow, the European Union’s ambassador to Russia, Roland Galharague, laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument dedicated to the victims of political repressions.

Here’s a quick round-up of the global outrage that greeted Friday’s news of the death of Alexei Navalny in jail in Russia:

The United States vice-president, Kamala Harris, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, said Navalny’s death was “terrible news”:

My prayers are with his family, including his wife, Yulia, who is with us today. If confirmed, this would be a further sign of Putin’s brutality. Whatever story they tell, let us be clear: Russia is responsible.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also in Munich, echoed her condemnation:

Our hearts go out to his wife and his family. Beyond that, his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this.

We’ll be talking to the many other countries concerned about Alexei Navalny, especially if these reports bear out to be true.

Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, said it was a “huge tragedy”, saying Navalny had demonstrated “incredible courage” in his life.

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, praised Navalny on CBC Radio:

He was such a strong fighter for democracy, for freedoms for the Russian people. It really shows the extent to which Putin will crack down on anyone who is fighting for freedom for the Russian people. It is a tragedy and it’s something that has the entire world being reminded of exactly what a monster Putin is.

The UN human rights office called on Russia for a credible investigation. A spokesperson, Liz Throssell, said:

If someone dies in the custody of the state, the presumption is that the state is responsible – a responsibility that can only be rebutted through an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, posted a simple but strong message on X. He said Navalny would never be forgotten, adding: “And we will never forgive them.”

Jens Stoltenberg, general secretary of Nato, told reporters Russia had “seriuous questions” to answer:

I am deeply saddened and concerned about reports coming from Russia that Alexei Navalny is dead. All the facts have to be established and Russia has serious questions to answer.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, which is currently defending itself against a Russian invasion, said it was “obvious” that Putin was directly behind the death of Navalny. Speaking in Germany, he said the Russian president did not care who died, so long as his position at the head of the state was secure.

The Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters that Navalny’s death was “murder”, and said that he believed prison conditions had led to his demise.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of what we know so far:

• The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in jail aged 47, the country’s prison service has said, in what supporters and western officials have called a political assassination attributable to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. You can read our news story here.

• Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke at the Munich Security Conference to call on the international community to come together and punish “this horrific regime” in Russia, and Putin, who she said was personally responsible for her husband’s death. “If this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family. And this day will happen very soon,” she said.

• A wave of international outrage greeted the news, with the UK and US leading the condemnation. The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, said Russia, under Putin, “fabricated charges … poisoned him, sent him to an Arctic penal colony”. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Munich, said reports of Navalny’s death “underscore the weakness and rot at the heart” of the Putin regime.

• Russia’s foreign ministry said the US should show restraint before accusing the country of Navalny’s death. Moscow’s Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying the US needed to wait for the results of the forensic medical examination.

We’ll have plenty more news and reaction to come, including Joe Biden’s comments shortly.

I’m Richard Luscombe in the US, and I’ll be guiding you through the next few hours as developments unfold.