Irish Daily Star

‘Vlad goons Alexei with RUSSIAN DESERTER PILOT ‘GUNNED DOWN IN SPAIN’

MOSCOW REFUSES TO GIVE BODY TO MOTHER

- ■■Chris HUGHES ■■Will STEWART

MURDERED Russian opposition hero Alexei Navalny’s devastated widow has accused the Kremlin of poisoning him with Novichok and vowed to fight on.

Battling tears of rage and mourning Yulia Navalnaya blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for her husband’s killing and referred to his earlier poisoning with Sovietera Novichok.

She tore into the Russian President and his murderous henchmen, saying Putin killed her husband because he was “unbreakabl­e”.

Mean

And she spoke as Navalny’s mother was refused permission to see her son’s body.

Yulia said Putin’s goons were covering up traces of her husband being poisoned again.

Yesterday, she said: “They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably while waiting for the trace of another of Putin’s Novichok to disappear.” Soon after her furious accusation Russian investigat­ors said they will keep Na

A ‘HERO’ Russian military pilot who flew his Mi-8 helicopter over the frontline to defect to Ukraine has been gunned to death in Spain, it is feared.

Captain Maksim Kuzminov (28) was riddled with bullets in Villajoyos­a, near Alicante, according to reports.

Earlier, the Spanish authoritie­s said a Ukrainian man aged 33 had been shot dead.

Ukrainian GRU military intelligen­ce spokesman Andriy Yusov yesterday told the Kyiv Post: “We can confirm the fact of death.”

He gave no further details, and did not specifical­ly say Kuzminov — a known target valny’s body for 14 days “until a chemical examinatio­n is completed”.

Yulia went on to urge Russians to rally behind her fury, saying: “Rage, anger, hatred for those who dared to kill our future. “I address you with the words of Alexei, in which for Russian death squads — had been killed in the Spanish incident.

The GRU had mastermind­ed his spectacula­r defection.

Yesterday, news outlets in Moscow suggested that Kuzminov was the victim in the Spanish shooting.

There were claims he had kept in contact with people from his former life, which may have led the Russians to him.

Soon after his defection, there were public death threats in October last year that Putin’s secret services would find and kill him for a betrayal. Anonymous Spetsnaz special forces officers from Russia’s GRU military intelligen­ce service were last year shown on state TV that an “order” was given to liquidate Kuzminov.

If his death is confirmed, it would show a Putin hit squad had acted with impunity in a NATO and EU country. ‘SLAIN’: Kuzminov

I really believe: ‘It’s not a shame to do little, it’s a shame to do nothing. It’s a shame to let yourself be intimidate­d’.”

Saying Putin had killed “half ” of her by bumping off Navalny she vowed to continue his battle against the Kremlin.

She added: “I will continue the work of Alexei and continue the fight for our country.

“He was tortured, kept in a prison cell in a concrete box for hundreds of days.

“He was bullied, cut off from the world.

“He was starved, three years of starvation but he did not doubt what he was fighting for.

“My husband could not be broken and that is exactly why Putin killed him.”

Grim

Navalny had been serving a 19 year sentence at the grim ‘Polar Wolf ’ penal colony in the Arctic, 1,200 miles north of Moscow.

The authoritie­s said he collapsed, whilst “going for a walk”.

He had been moved to the facility in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets region, refusing to give up his battle against Putin’s murder

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 ?? ?? WANTED: Russians in Salisbury linked to poison
WANTED: Russians in Salisbury linked to poison
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 ?? ?? ANGER: Navalny’s widow Yulia
ANGER: Navalny’s widow Yulia
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