Julia navalia the Widow of Russian
opposition leader Alexi navali has
accused Vladimir Putin of killing her
husband and vowed to continue his work
in a video posted on social media
platform X she called on supporters to
resist Putin and to fight for a free
Russia it has been three days since
Russian authorities announced naval's
death so far they have prevented his
family and allies from seeing his
body it's a video Julia naala said she
didn't want to make calling out Russian
President Vladimir Putin for murdering
her husband in the days since Alexa
nal's death his wife has made it clear
she won't be intimidated into
silence three days ago Vladimir Putin
killed my husband Alexa Naval Putin
killed the father of my children Putin
took away the dearest thinner head the
closest and most beloved
person Russian Authority ities have so
far refused to hand over naval's body to
his family his mother went to the
investigative office near the prison
where her son died to get his body and
left
empty-handed a Kremlin spokesperson
condemned naval's statements and said
the death was being investigated
according to law navala calls it a
coverup for a second poisoning of her
husband after an attempt to kill him
with the nerve agent novich chuk failed
in
2020 and coverly fashion they now hiding
his body not showing it to his mother or
giving it to her and pathetically lying
and waiting for the traces of mtin noich
to
disappear at moscow's wall of grief
mourners have left bouquets and messages
for alexe navali in the snow the site
commemorates victims of Soviet
repression in an environment where it's
dangerous to show public grief for
navali it's the closest thing to an
official memorial for for the opposition
leader and naval's Widow Julia navalia
has just finished a meeting with EU
policy Chiefs and foreign ministers in
Brussels the talks come as the EU
considers what further sanctions it can
take against Russia in the wake of her
husband's death the eu's foreign policy
Chief Joseph borell said that it was
vital that whatever action is taken both
honors noal and continues his
work we have to send a message of
support to the Russian
opposition and to pay on homage to
navali and in order to honor his memory
we propose the ministers to rename our
human rights sanction regime with his
name and call it the naali human rights
sanction regime in order for his name to
be forever written on the work of the
European Union and defending human
rights DW correspond Christine Mund
following the developments in Brussels
So Christine we understand that there
have been calls for further sanctions on
Russia over naval's death what more can
you tell us about whether that might
translate into some meaningful
action Sarah the EU is currently
discussing a 13th uh package of
sanctions uh against Russia for the
invasion of Ukraine and coming into
today's meeting a number of member
states are in support of imposing
sanctions over the death of alexe navali
uh we know for instance we were just
listening to the eu's Chief Diplomat
over there on foreign policy Joseph
Boral he said that pu Vladimir Putin and
the regime should be held accountable
for the death of uh of alexe navali in
the past the European Union has targeted
uh individuals over his arrest in 2021
for example uh and it is likely that
they will Target institutions like the
prison system we got a hint of that uh
and individuals uh operating in that
system they will be talking targeted
with travel bans and asset freezes many
member states put the blame uh solely at
the hands and feet of Vladimir Putin but
he is not likely to be sanctioned by the
European Union instead these will be
more symbolic sanctions targeted against
individuals working in and around
institutions like the prison system in
Russia and naval's Widow Julia navalia
what more can you tell us about her
meetings today with EU foreign
ministers
Sarah she's had a number of meetings
here uh she began uh with of course the
foreign uh Affairs Council that is all
the 27 uh foreign ministers where she
spent about 20 minutes with them she
then went on to meet uh the eu's council
president sha Michelle that meeting
lasted about 10 minutes uh and then
she's had a number of bilaterals lined
up I know she's met with the Belgian
foreign minister for example um this is
a woman taking the message uh to to
leaders and officials here that she
wants to continue uh her husband's work
they were pleased to have an opportunity
to personally convey uh a message of
condolence to to show support uh and and
empathize with her at at this moment of
time in her grief um but she's here to
deliver a message about how uh the
opposition Civil Society in Russia can
be supported after meeting uh with uh
the foreign ministers borell uh said uh
in a in a in a post on X uh that the EU
would continue to support civil societ
as well as uh media in Independent Media
in Russia tww correspondent Christine
wunda thank
you now the threat posed by Russian
disinformation campaigns has been in the
spotlight ever since the United States
accused Moscow of interfering in the
2016 presidential election following
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine
Western concerns over the kremlin's
propaganda have grown one of the
country's most susceptible to Russian
disinformation is its Baltic neighbor
laia which is home to a large
russian-speaking
minority even before Russia's invasion
of Ukraine laia banned some 20 Russian
media Outlets but Russian TV channels
are still accessible via the Internet
and satellite Lafia is a former Soviet
Republic and is now a member of the
European Union and NATO it has expressed
concerns about a possible attack from
Russia
and for more on Russia's disinformation
efforts we are joined now here in the
studio by agesa loina She Is the Latvian
culture Minister thank you so much for
your time and for joining us here on DW
news thank you for having me and it's a
pleasure to be here I I would just like
to ask for first for your quick reaction
to our top story today um we have been
hearing from Alexi naval's widow she has
placed the blame uh for her husband's
death very squarely on Russian President
Vladimir Putin do you share that
assessment uh yes very much and that's
also what our president Edgar svich has
has said on social media that uh naal is
uh in fact killed by by Kremlin and I
would like to ask I would like to add
that uh Naval is just uh the most recent
case in a rather long list of uh Putin's
opposition killed by by his forces and
we're seeing the information that has
been coming out of Russia right because
I mean the the family has been blocked
now from seeing the body they are trying
to to get access
how are you viewing how Russia is
framing this story to the outside world
and to its own domestic public um I
think that uh it is very important to to
really keep in mind that this is not the
first case that something like this
happens that Kremlin is dealing with uh
with with their oppos opponents the way
they they know how which is by killing
them and uh we need to keep in mind
abroad that indeed Nal is just the the
most recent case in a rather long list
of of such killings and starting with an
poosa with Boris nmo a few years ago and
uh others who were killed by by Kremlin
and um the the message that we need to
send out is uh is of strength that's the
only language that uh that Putin and his
regime can understand and the only way
how we can send out the the message of
strength and that show that we are as
Western World we are strong is by
supporting Ukraine and making sure that
Russia loses in Ukraine um information
and disinformation is disseminated in so
many languages no matter which country
it's coming from or you know which actor
it's coming from but I'd like to ask you
specifically about um your large Russian
minority that you have in your country
and and when they're hearing stories for
example from Russia about the government
or perhaps about naval's death for
example how are they affected and and
what are your
concerns um in that regard first things
first um Russian minority in lva is not
homogeneous group it's a it's a large
group of people with various values a
lot of them are very um glad to live in
a democratic free independent country
with free Independent Media and um the
way we're strengthening lria is by
making sure that our media stays free
independent and um um accessible to
everybody there's there's sorry there's
also um a number of initiatives on the
EU level as well how how are you then
working on also with your uh with the
the EU as a counterpart in order to
combat disinformation uh we're we're
working very closely because there are a
lot of things that we can do only on a
on a GL on a European level such as um
uh making sure that Russian propaganda
is not spread abroad because of course
uh we live uh we in lvia we know very
well that war starts with uh information
war and that people's minds it's the
first Frontier of of information war and
we need need to make sure that people
have access to Independent information
that is objective that is uh editorially
checked and that is free and um we need
to make sure that uh that they are not
um that this Russian propaganda is not
freely accessible everywhere and uh that
is a lot of uh work that we have to do
together and um we're happy that that
our colleagues on the European level
also see that and and are
um that are agreeing with us you as a
country um in the baltics you were out
front from the very beginning very long
time ago with regard to to Russian
aggression uh in the
region how good are they at this how
good are they at disinformation and how
how high is your concern right
now um we always have uh felt that
disinformation is a very serious threat
and that we have to counter it by by
making sure that uh society's media
literacy is high we need to very much
invest in media literacy we also need to
invest in U making sure that our
legislation is up to date we live in the
era that is going to be marked by AI as
well we need to have legislation on AI
because this is another tool that can be
used by people who are not Democratic in
their um in their ways and that are not
fond of democracy and they will use it
to to make sure that the elections that
we have this year are the last
Democratic elections and we have to be
very very aware of that and this is this
is a very serious threat so we in lva we
very much know that we are aware of that
and we are taking all the necessary um
steps in order to strengthen our
mediascape and uh we just passed this
mon this this year in January we passed
the law that is going to merge um lvan
State Latvian public uh television and
and radio um so we're going to to to
create one um new entity of uh merged uh
television and radio which will um help
to consolidate efforts in fighting of
disinformation thank you so much for
joining us here uh to tell us a little
bit more about those efforts agesa loina
as we mentioned you're the latian
minister of culture we appreciate it
thank you so much for having
me