Zelensky to Russians: A vote for Putin is a vote for a murderer

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after signing an agreement, on Friday, February 16, 2024, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Russians who vote for President Vladimir Putin in elections next month should realize that they are voting for a murderer. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Russians who vote for President Vladimir Putin in elections next month should realize that they are voting for a murderer.

Russian authorities reported earlier on Friday that jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died in custody.

“The events tell (us) that Putin is a murderer and this is not rhetoric,” Zelensky told a news conference in Paris, commenting on Navalny’s death. “And this is not a signal. It is absolutely obvious he is a murderer and there are no secrets (here).”

READ: Russia’s Navalny tracked down to ‘Polar Wolf’ prison in the Arctic

The Russian prison service said in a statement that Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and fierce Putin critic, collapsed and died on February 16 after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony where he was serving a long jail term.

READ: Russia’s Navalny faces decades behind bars as judge rejects appeal

The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow into the Arctic Circle.

He lost consciousness almost immediately, it said.

Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, rose to prominence more than a decade ago with blogs on what he said was vast corruption and opulence among the “crooks and thieves” of Russia’s elite.

READ: ‘Paid with his life’: World reacts to Navalny’s death

Supporters of Navalny said they could not confirm he was dead, but that if he was then they believed he had been killed. They have cast him as a Russian version of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who would one day be freed from jail to lead the country.

Navalny earned admiration from many in Russian opposition circles for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he underwent treatment for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia.

Navalny’s death brought a torrent of outrage from the West, some saying Russian leader Putin bore responsibility.