Alexei Navalny's latest death: X recovers his wife Yulia's account as Putin files suit against critic's brother

The White House announced that a new package of sanctions against Russia is set to take effect following the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a concentration camp in Siberia.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said existing sanctions “will be specifically supplemented by additional sanctions related to the death of Mr. Navalny.”

While noting that the United States does not yet know the cause of Navalny's death, Kirby continued to blame Putin, telling reporters: “Regardless of the scientific answer, Putin is responsible for it.”

my colleague Gustav Kilander Reports from Washington, D.C.:

The United States will announce a major package of sanctions on Russia on Friday in response to the death of Alexei Navalny, the White House said.

National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the package would “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny” and for its actions during the war in Ukraine.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, was seen placing a bouquet of white flowers next to a photo of her son.

Social media site X claimed to have suspended Yulia Navalnaya's account after it was mistakenly flagged as “violating our rules”.

“Our platform's defense mechanism against tampering and spam has been incorrectly flagged

As a violation of our rules,” @yulia_navalnaya wrote.

“We unsuspended the account as soon as we learned of the error, and will update the defense.”

They did not explain how they wrongly believed Ms Navalnaya had broken the rules.

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it summoned the Russian ambassador against the backdrop of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The ministry said in a statement: “The ministry calls on the Russian authorities to bear responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny and to conduct a full and transparent investigation to determine the circumstances and cause of his death.”

In a recorded message outside the Arctic Wolf penal colony in the Arctic Circle on Tuesday (February 20), Lyudmila Navalnaya said: “I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, because the solution to this problem depends only on you.

“Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so I can bury him humanely.”

Russian authorities said they would not return Navalny's body for two weeks while they continued to investigate his death.

Yulia Navalnaya's X account was restored just minutes after it was suspended.

Alexei Navalny's wife created an account on Monday, quickly amassing nearly 100,000 followers.

Russia has opened a new criminal case against Oleg Navalny, the brother of slain Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.

TASS did not say under which article of the Criminal Code the case was opened, but said that the police were looking for Oleg Navalny. Who was already on the wanted list in connection with another matter.

In 2014, Oleg Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for fraud in a case that Kremlin critics said was fabricated and aimed at increasing pressure on his late brother.

Company X, formerly known as Twitter, has blocked the account of Alexei Navalny's widow.

Yulia Navalnaya created her account on Monday. She has since used it to commit to holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable.