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Footage posted on X by the US Southern Command shows strikes being carried out various vessels at sea. (Supplied: US Southern Command/X)
In short:
The US military says it struck three boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea on Monday, local time.
In
a post on X, the US Southern Command said 11 men were killed in the
strikes as the vessels traversed "known nacro-trafficking routes".
They
are the latest in a string of military strikes carried out by the US on
what the Trump administration says are drug smuggling operations bound
for the US.
The
US military says 11 people are dead after it carried out strikes on
three vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
In
a post on X, the US Southern Command said the three vessels struck
"were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged
in narco-trafficking operations".
"Eleven
male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions, 4 on the first
vessel in the Eastern Pacific, 4 on the second vessel in the Eastern
Pacific, and 3 on the third vessel in the Caribbean,' it said, adding
that no US forces were harmed.
The
strikes took place late Monday, local time, and vision published on X by
the Southern Command shows missiles striking various vessels.
The boats are then shown on fire in the water.
The US military did not provide evidence of the alleged drug trafficking.
The
attacks are the latest in a string of operations carried out in the
waters of the eastern Pacific and Caribbean in what the US government
says are attempts to prevent drug smugglers from reaching the United
States.
US President Donald Trump has previously justified the attacks as a necessary step to clamp down on the drug trafficking trade.
Since
taking office for the second time in January last year, Mr Trump has
dramatically increased US interventions in Central and South America.
In early January, US forces seized Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and flew him to New York, where he was charged with a number of offences, including nacro-terrorism conspiracy.
Downtown
Munich is best-known for chic shops and flashy fast cars but right now
its streets are bedecked with posters advertising next generation
drones.
"Europe's
security under construction" boasts the slogan on an eye-catching set
of sleek black-and-white photographs, festooned across a
scaffolding-clad church on one of this town's best known pedestrian
boulevards.
Such
an unapologetic public display of military muscle would have been
unimaginable here just a few years ago, but the world outside Germany is
changing fast, and taking this country with it.
The southern region of Bavaria has become Germany's leading defence technology hub, focusing on AI, drones and aerospace.
Advertisements such as these that say "Europe's security under construction" would have been unthinkable in Germany not long ago
People
here, like most other Europeans, say they feel increasingly exposed -
squeezed between an expansionist Russia and an economically aggressive
China to the east, and an increasingly unpredictable, former best pal,
the United States, to the west.
According to a recent Eurobarometer poll, more than two-thirds of Europeans (68%) feel their country is under threat.
This
autumn, Germany's Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster
Assistance warned for the first time since the Cold War that war is no
longer "unlikely". While emphasising that this is a safe country, it
also recommends that Germans keep food supplies to last three to ten
days at home. Just in case.
Germany
is the number one single donor of military and other aid to Ukraine,
now that the US has halted any new direct aid. Opinion polls suggest
voters here want to feel better protected at home too.
AFP via Getty Images
Germany is now the single biggest giver of aid to Ukraine
The
question for this country, along with others in Europe is whether
traditional alliances with the US, in Nato and the EU can suffice, or
whether they should be diversifying into ad-hoc coalitions alongside
other like-minded nations such as Australia, South Korea and Japan?
Precarious relations
By
2029, the German defence budget will be higher than the UK and French
equivalents combined, Nato's Secretary General Mark Rutte pointed out to
me.
He described the €150bn they say they will spend on defence as "a staggering amount".
It's
something the United States notices and appreciates, he said. Donald
Trump is far from the first US president to insist that Europe do more
for its own security, though his tone has been noticeably more
threatening than that of his predecessors.
The
precarious state of transatlantic relations was the main focus of the
Munich Security Conference (MSC) this weekend. It's the world's biggest
annual defence meeting, bringing leaders, security experts and defence
industries together.
Mark Rutte (pictured speaking to Katya Adler), described the E150bn Germany will spend on defence "a staggering amount"
While
it's easy to dismiss speech-heavy get-togethers like this as wind-baggy
talking shops, in the turbulent times we live in, they can make a
difference - especially the informal private huddles between global
decision makers, far away from the glare of the cameras.
The
most eagerly - and for some the most anxiously - anticipated speech at
this year's conference was that of the US Secretary of State, Marco
Rubio, who represented the Trump administration here.
European
leaders and top diplomats were seriously on the edge of their seats.
But why was a simple 30-minute address given so much importance?
It's
because Europe-US relations have never been so frayed as they are now,
over the last 80 years since World War Two. And this isn't a bust-up
between buddies that will easily blow over.
Denmark still furious
In
the just over 12 months since Trump returned to the White House, he has
at times insulted and undermined European leaders, slapped big tariffs
on their exports, and most shockingly of all to his allies in Nato,
threatened Danish sovereignty over its territory, Greenland, refusing
for a while to rule out taking the island by force.
Speaking
at the MSC on Saturday, Denmark's still clearly furious prime minister,
Mette Frederiksen, said Trump's designs on Greenland remained "the
same" despite ongoing trilateral talks between representatives of
Greenland, the US and Denmark.
Trump
has ruled out taking Greenland by military force for now, and he's
backed away (for the moment, at least) from slapping economic sanctions
on allies, including the UK, France and Germany, that were getting in
the way of the US acquiring the Arctic island. But transatlantic trust
was severely damaged.
European
powers see in Trump a truly transactional president who thinks nothing
of leveraging security or economic relations with his closest allies to
get what he wants. Just before being re-elected president, for example,
he told Europeans that the US would not protect nations that didn't pay
their way on defence.
It
is true though, that Europe has been coasting on America's security
blanket for decades. Critics in the US argue that European nations have
been able to run generous welfare states for decades while Washington
picked up the tab for security spending.
AFP via Getty Images
The speech by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio (left) was the most eagerly anticipated at the conference
Germany's
defence minister, Boris Pistorius, told me on Saturday: "We got used to
the strong support from the US; we got used to our comfort zone in
which we used to live. This time is over, definitely over," he said.
"Washington was right."
But
the crisis over Greenland and other actions by the Trump administration
- such as when it temporarily paused intelligence-sharing with
Ukrainian forces last March, leaving them blind on the battlefield, in
order to pressure Kyiv into engaging in peace talks with Moscow - have
left deep scars and a troubling sense of transatlantic wariness.
Hence the trepidation in Munich before Rubio took the stage.
In
the end, his words were laced with a sense of historic kinship. "We
want Europe to be strong," he said. "The two great wars of the last
century serve for us as a constant reminder that ultimately our destiny
is, and will always be, intertwined with yours."
I
found it telling that so many leading European figures in the audience
jumped on the warmth of his words, rising to their feet to applaud the
US Secretary of State. They were clearly relieved he hadn't threatened
or berated Europe as the US Vice President JD Vance famously did at last
year's MSC.
But
for those listening closely, Rubio's speech was loyal to themes close
to the heart of the Trump administration and hard for many European
leaders to swallow: anti climate action, sceptical of globalisation,
multilateralism, migration and pro the building of a new era of
Christian western civilisation.
Rubio
was clear: the US wasn't interested in allies clinging to the old
status quo. It wanted to forge a new path, ideally alongside Europe, but
only if it shared the same values.
This US offer of close partnership was conditional and absent of a sense of compromise.
"A
bit like a (psychologically) abusive partner," said one European
diplomat, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity. "He reminded
Europe how wonderful the (transatlantic) relationship used to be, but he
then switched to coercion: If you want things to be good between us in
the future, you have to do as I say!"
Another
diplomat pointed out that, while talking of shared values, it was
telling, he said, that of all the European countries that Rubio could
have gone to after making his speech in Germany, he chose to visit
Slovakia and Hungary before heading back to the US.
They
are viewed by Brussels as two of the EU's most problematic members,
both with Eurosceptic nationalist prime ministers who oppose sending
military aid to Ukraine and who are tough on migration.
A fragile new relationship
Rubio's
softer tone also divided European leaders who had recently spoken as
one, in defence of Denmark, at the height of the Greenland crisis last
month.
The
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, underlined a
now fragile relationship with the US, despite Rubio's gentler rhetoric.
"Some lines have been crossed that cannot be uncrossed anymore," she
said. "Europeans have suffered shock therapy."
But
will some countries in Europe grasp what warmness there was in Rubio's
speech as an excuse not to rush to boost defence spending as promised?
The coffers of most European governments are over stretched already and
their voters tend to prioritise cost-of-living concerns over defence
budgets.
Reuters
"Some
lines have been crossed that cannot be uncrossed anymore," according to
the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
Rachel Ellehuus, Director-General of defence think-tank RUSI told me she sees a rift opening up across the continent.
On
the one hand, you have the Nordic and Baltic nations that are
geographically close to Russia, and also Germany and the Netherlands,
which are all big defence spenders, she says, whereas in southern
Europe, there's Spain, for example, that is absolutely unapologetic
about refusing to increase defence budgets to the levels demanded by
Donald Trump.
France
and Britain are both verbally committed to boosting defence spending,
says Ellehuus, but are still looking for a "political band aid" to help
them explain to voters the trade-offs that will involve - higher taxes,
less welfare or more borrowing.
"Europeans
need to get to work yesterday and to focus," she says. "They have 5-10
years to stand on their own two feet in terms of conventional defence
capabilities."
Last
week, U.S. Undersecretary of Defence Elbridge Colby couldn't have been
more stark in his messaging at a meeting of Nato defence ministers he
attended in Brussels: Europe was no longer a US priority, the
Indo-Pacific was.
"Under
President Trump's leadership, we are reprioritising the defence of our
homeland and the protection of our interests in our Hemisphere," he
said.
While
he emphasised that the US remained committed to Nato's mutual defence
clause, where an attack against one member is viewed as an attack
against all, Colby insisted the US would be reducing its capabilities in
Europe, becoming "a more limited and focused" presence.
Europe
had to become a partner, rather than a dependent, he said, calling for a
new "Nato 3.0". The old world order with the West at its core, has
faded but the MSC this weekend made clear that what comes next for
Europe and the US is still very much up in the air.
Marco
Rubio called for a new century of western civilisation, Elbridge Colby
wants a re-vamped Nato, while the UK's prime minister appealed in Munich
for the western alliance to be re-made.
Starmer's nuanced approach
In
stark contrast to Marco Rubio's insistence on greater national
sovereignty, Sir Keir Starmer spoke in favour of greater integration
between the UK and Europe on defence - to cut re-armament costs, though,
he emphasised this did not mean the UK turning its back on the United
States.
Sophia
Gaston, national security expert at Kings College London, told me that
in Munich, Starmer was able to better articulate the nuance of Britain's
strategic outlook.
"Other
allies in Europe may be more willing to speak of divergence from
Washington", she says, "but for Britain it remains a strategic
imperative to triangulate within the Transatlantic relationship. There
will also be times when Britain will have to make hard choices, and
Starmer appeared more confident in confronting that reality.
"The
key is to have a really strong grasp of the national interest and our
instruments of power and influence. This requires a much more
competitive approach that has not always felt natural to Britain, which
has typically pursued much of its diplomacy in elegant,
consensus-focused and invisible ways."
PA Media
Keir Starmer spoke in favour of greater integration between the UK and Europe on defence
In
these fast-moving, unpredictable times, Europe's leaders are
increasingly turning to a la carte coalitions, alongside traditional
organisations like Nato or the EU, which are larger and therefore often
slower to react. These groupings also include non-European nations.
Take,
for example, the so-called Coalition of the Willing group of countries,
led by the UK and France and formed to secure Ukrainian sovereignty in
the case of an eventual peace deal with Russia. Turkey has attended
coalition meetings, as have New Zealand and Australia.
Canada
is increasingly working alongside Nordic and Baltic nations that share
geopolitical challenges and common values, they say, and want to promote
stability and deterrence from the edges of the Baltic Sea, through the
Nordic and Baltic states, through the North Atlantic, Greenland and
across the Canadian arctic.
One
European policy-maker who asked not to be named joked to me that Canada
was becoming "more and more European by the day". Japan and South Korea
were increasingly seen as part of the "like-minded family" too, he
said.
Not just defence
These
ad hoc coalitions are not restricted to defence alone. France's
President Macron has long called for Europe to increase what he calls
its strategic autonomy, in traditional security terms but also energy
security, supply chains and new technologies. In Munich he recommended
Europe "de-risk" from all outside powers.
This
weekend even saw the president of the European Commission admitting
that if the EU failed to move fast enough on improving competitiveness,
"a group of its member states would have to move forward alone".
Attempts
by smaller pockets of European powers to work together to advance
European strategic independence are by no means always successful. Take
the current row between France and Germany over their joint attempt to
come up with the next generation of fighter jet with the Future Combat
Air System (FCAS).
You
could also say that for all the talk of building European independence,
this weekend's conference was also a reminder of just how dependent
Europe remains on US security support - from its nuclear umbrella to
intelligence sharing and command and control structures. It was also a
reminder of how far Europe trails the US in high tech innovation.
But
more than short-term mechanisms designed to 'survive' Donald Trump, the
changes we are witnessing in Europe, including closer alliances outside
the continent, are liable to be longer lasting. The world now seems to
dance to the tune of big power politics. And even slow-moving Europe is
having to adapt.
Top picture credit: AFP / Getty Images
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Barack Obama and Donald Trump before the state funeral service for former US president Jimmy Carter in 2025. (AFP: Roberto Schmidt)
In short:
Barack Obama has indirectly addressed a video posted on Donald Trump's social media that depicted him as a monkey.
The AI-generated clip was later blamed on staff error and deleted.
The former US president has criticised a lack of shame and decorum in the country's political discourse.
Former
US president Barack Obama has criticised a lack of shame and decorum in
the country's political discourse, responding for the first time to a
post on Donald Trump's social media account that depicted him and former
first lady Michelle as monkeys.
Near
the end of a one-minute-long video about election conspiracy theories,
the Obamas — the first Black president and first lady in US history —
were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one
second.
Mr Obama responded to
the video for the first time in an interview with political podcaster
Brian Tyler Cohen, released on Saturday.
"The
discourse has devolved into a level of cruelty that we haven't seen
before … Just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face on
an ape's body," Mr Cohen said in the interview.
"And so again, we've seen the devolution of the discourse. How do we come back from a place that we have fallen into?"
Without naming Mr Trump, Mr Obama responded by saying the majority of Americans "find this behaviour deeply troubling".
"There's
this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on
television, and what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame
about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort
of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right?
That's been lost."
Mr
Obama predicted that such messaging would hurt Mr Trump's Republicans
in midterm elections, and that "ultimately, the answer is going to come
from the American people".
Mr
Trump has told reporters he stood by the thrust of the video's claims
about election fraud, but that he had not seen the offensive clip at the
end.
Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya previously said tests showed her husband was killed by poisoning. (AP Photo: Ivan Sekretarev)
Five
European nations have accused Russia of using a deadly toxin taken from
a South American frog to kill opposition figure Alexei Navalny two
years ago.
The
toxin, found in poison dart frogs in South America, is about 100 times
more potent than morphine and is not found naturally in Russia.
Researchers believe the frogs acquire the toxin through their diet, but those raised in captivity do not produce any.
Russian authorities said Navalny died in prison from natural causes after going for a walk and becoming ill in 2024.
But Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before his death.
"These
labs in two different countries reached the same conclusion: Alexei was
killed. More specifically, he was poisoned," Ms Navalnaya said.
Following
the release of the joint statement from the five nations, Ms Navalnaya
said on social media that she had been "certain from the first day" that
her husband had been poisoned, "but now there is proof".
The
alleged use of the deadly frog toxin marks an expansion in the arsenal
of novel chemical weapons suspected of being used by Russia.
These are some of the other instances where the Russian regime is accused of unleashing poison upon its enemies.
First alleged attempt on Alexei Nevalny
Alexei Navlany, who crusaded against official corruption and staged anti-Kremlin protests, was Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe.
It is believed Navlany had been poisoned before.
It occurred on a domestic flight in Russia in 2020 when he fell ill, stumbling into the aisle and collapsing.
Navalny's
plane, headed to Moscow from Tomsk in Siberia, was forced to make an
emergency landing in Omsk so he could be rushed to hospital.
He
was flown to a Berlin hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma
and eventually made a full recovery after learning to walk and speak
again.
German chemical weapons experts said toxicology reports showed he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
The staunch Putin critic fell violently ill on a flight and was in an induced coma for two weeks. (Supplied/Instagram)
Novichok
is a highly toxic nerve agent that slows the heart, paralyses the
muscles used for breathing and — if the dose is big enough — can lead to
death by asphyxiation.
A smaller dose may result in seizures, neuromuscular weakness, liver failure and other damage.
More
generally, nerve agents are highly toxic chemicals that can be either
gas, aerosol or liquid, which poison the nervous system and disrupt
bodily functions.
The Kremlin denied it was involved in poisoning Navalny and accused Germany of failing to provide evidence.
Initially,
it was believed the poison was put in a cup of tea Navalny had at a
cafe at the airport before boarding his flight, as that was the only
thing he ingested that morning.
But
subsequent investigations revealed the substance was likely applied to
his underwear in his hotel room the night before he left for his
flight.
It was not the first time the deadly Novichok agent had been deployed against a critic of the Russian government.
The Salisbury poisoning
In
2018, a man and woman were found slumped unconscious on a public bench
outside a shopping centre in the southern English city of Salisbury.
The
pair found by a doctor and nurse passing by would turn out to be former
Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Skripal,
66, is a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was
arrested in 2004 in Moscow after it was found he had been working as a
double agentfor the British.
He
was accused of passing on the identities of Russia's spies to the UK's
Secret Intelligence Service MI6, in return for $US100,000.
Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury in March 2018. (AP: Misha Japaridze (L) / Facebook: Yulia Skripal (R))
Skripal was later freed in a prisoner swap, pardoned in exchange for 10 Russian agents.
He was granted asylum in the UK and lived openly under his own name, with his Salisbury address appearing in public records.
Speculation
over how he was poisoned was rife in the UK tabloid media as he, his
daughter and a police officer who investigated their home, Nick Bailey,
received treatment in hospital.
Russian
authorities denied any involvement, but within weeks the leaders of the
United States, the UK, France and Germany concluded the Russian
government was behind the attack, noting there was "no plausible
alternative explanation".
Detectives found a high concentration of Novichok on the front door of Skripal's home.
Detectives initially named two Russian intelligence officers, Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin as suspects.
In 2021, they named a third, senior Russian agent, Denis Sergeev as the on-the-ground commander.
The Skripals and the police officer were able to make a full recovery.
But the attack had more grave, unintended consequences on innocent civilians.
About
four months after the poisoning, mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died
from exposure to the poison after her partner found a counterfeit
perfume bottle that Russian spies were believed to haveused to smuggle the Novichok into the country.
The counterfeit bottle of perfume recovered from Charlie Rowley's home.
(Metropolitan Police handout via Reuters)
Sturgess
and her partner Charlie Rowley were found unconscious at their home, a
few kilometres from the scene of a nerve agent attack on a former
Russian spy and his daughter in March.
Sturgess died after doctors made the decision to turn off her life support, while Mr Rowley ended up recovering.
Police
said the perfume bottle, which was found to contain Novichok, was
discarded in the Skripal attack, only to later be found by Mr Rowley.
Mr
Rowley told ITV News that his partner became sick 15 minutes after
spraying the perfume on her wrists and he came into contact with it
after some tipped on his hands when attaching the spray dispenser to the
bottle, but washed his hands.
An
inquiry by the British government found that Russian President Vladimir
Putin authorised the assassination attempt on the Skripals with
Novichok and there was a clear link between the use and discarding of
Novichok and the death of Dawn Sturgess as well as the poisoning of
Charlie Rowley.
Dawn Sturgess was poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
The murder of Alexander Litvinenko
In
2006, ex-KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died an
agonising death after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210 at
London's Millennium Hotel.
Hours after drinking the tea, he suffered from sickness and stomach pain.
He lost all of his hair and died three weeks later from a cardiac arrest caused by organ malfunction.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says there are still questions remaining over future security guarantees for Ukraine. (AP: Michael Probst)
In short:
A Ukrainian drone has struck Russia's port of Taman in the Black Sea, damaging an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals.
Meanwhile,
officials say falling debris from Russian drones have damaged civilian
and transport infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region.
What's next?
US-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine are set to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A
Ukrainian drone strike has ignited fires at one of Russia's Black Sea
ports, officials say, ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending the war.
Two people were wounded in the attack on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, which took place on Sunday, local time.
The
strike resulted in damage to an oil storage tank, warehouse and
terminals, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
Meanwhile,
falling debris from Russian drones damaged civilian and transport
infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region, officials said, causing
disruption to the power and water supply.
Ukraine's
long-range drone strikes on Russian energy sites aim to deprive Moscow
of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
Russia
wants to hamstring the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians
access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials have
described as an attempt to "weaponise winter".
Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv after peace talks in January. (Reuters: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/File)
The
attacks came ahead of another round of US-brokered talks between envoys
from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, just before
the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion on February
22.
Speaking at the Munich
Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, local time, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested there were still questions
remaining over future security guarantees for his country.
Ukrainian soldiers firing on Russian forces in the Donetsk region in January. (Reuters: Ukrainian Armed Forces/Oleg Petrasiuk/File)
Zelenskyy
also questioned how the concept of a free trade zone, proposed by the
US, would work in the Donbas region, which Russia has insisted Kyiv must
give up for peace.
He said the
Americans wanted peace as quickly as possible and that the US wanted to
sign all the agreements on Ukraine at the same time, whereas Ukraine
wanted guarantees for the country's future security signed first.
Previous
US-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two
rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, have failed to resolve difficult issues,
such as the future of Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland that is
largely occupied by Russian forces.
Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison in February 2024. (Reuters: Shamil Zhumatov)
In short:
Five European nations have said jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Russian state.
Mr Navalny died in prison in 2024.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said there was now proof of what she had believed "from the first day".
Five
European nations say Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was
poisoned with a lethal toxin, and are blaming the Russian state for the
attack.
The foreign ministries
of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said that
analysis of samples from Mr Navalny, who died two years ago, "have
conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine."
It is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America.
The
joint statement, released by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Office, said that "only the Russian state had the combined
means, motive and disregard for international law" to carry out the
attack.
The countries said they
were reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.
Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya previously said tests showed her husband was killed by poisoning. (AP Photo: Ivan Sekretarev)
Mr Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before his death.
Ms
Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Mr
Navalny's death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied.
Following
the release of the statement, Ms Navalnaya said on social media that
she had been "certain from the first day" that her husband had been
poisoned, "but now there is proof".
Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.
