President Biden met Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and her daughter, Dasha, during a trip to San Francisco on Thursday.
The White House said that during the meeting Biden “expressed his admiration for Alexei Navalny’s extraordinary courage and his legacy of fighting against corruption and for a free and democratic Russia.”
Navalny, who fought for years against official Kremlin corruption before his 2021 arrest, died in the remote Siberian prison facility Polar Wolf last week, with Russian officials claiming he collapsed.
His wife has accused the Kremlin of hiding her husband’s body and has also vowed to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she and Western leaders have accused of being behind Navalny’s death.
Her outspokenness following the death of her husband has sparked speculation she may take up Navalny’s cause as a new opposition figure to Putin.
Also on Thursday, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya
, said she saw her son’s body but accused Russian authorities of trying to force her into doing a private funeral.
“They are blackmailing me, they are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried,”
she said in a video. “They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony.”
Navalny’s aides say his body won’t be released for two weeks pending an examination.
The tensions following Navalny’s death have spiraled, with Biden calling Putin a “crazy SOB” on Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Biden’s comments were “boorish” and bring “shame” on Washington.
Putin has said he would prefer Biden winning reelection this year because he views him as predictable.
“I believe that for us, Biden is a more preferable president for Russia,” Putin said on state television. “Judging by what he has just said, I am absolutely right.”
Read the full coverage of Navalny and the war at TheHill.com.
