(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (KUNA) -- US President Joe Biden said he was "both not surprised and outraged by the news" about the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny at a Russian jail on Friday morning.
"He (Navalny) bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence and all the bad things that the Putin government was doing.
"In response, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin had him poisoned. He had him arrested. He had him prosecuted for fabricated crimes. He sentenced him to prison. He was held in isolation. Even all that didn't stop him from calling out Putin's lies," Biden told reporters at the White House.
"Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. And he could have lived safely in exile after the assassination attempt on him in 2020, which nearly killed him, I might add. And -- but he -- he was traveling outside the country at the time. Instead, he returned to Russia.
"He returned to Russia knowing he'd likely be imprisoned or even killed if he continued his work, but he did it anyway because he believed so deeply in his country, in Russia.
"Reports of his death, if they're true, and I have no reason to believe they're not, Russian authorities are going to tell their own story.
"But make no mistake. Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny's death. Putin is responsible," the US President stressed.
"What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin's brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world.
"Putin does not only target citizens of other countries, as we've seen in what's going on in Ukraine right now, he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people.
"And his people across Russia and around the world are mourning Navalny today because he was so many things that Putin was not. He was brave. He was principled. He was dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law existed and of where it applied to everybody. Navalny believed in that Russia, that Russia.
"He knew it was a cause worth fighting for, and obviously even dying for. This tragedy reminds us of the stakes of this moment.
"We have to provide the funding so Ukraine can keep defending itself against Putin's vicious onslaughts and war crimes. You know, there was a bipartisan Senate vote that passed overwhelmingly in the United States Senate to fund Ukraine.
"Now, as I've said before, and I mean this in the literal sense, history is watching. History is watching the House of Representatives.
"The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten. It's going to go down in the pages of history. It really is. It's consequential. And the clock is ticking, and this has to happen.
"We have to help now. You know, we have to realize what we're dealing with with Putin. All of us should reject the dangerous statements made by the previous president that invited Russia to invade our NATO allies if they weren't paying up. He said if an ally did not pay their dues, he'd encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell they want," Biden added.
Earlier today, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed Navalny's death at age 47 in a remote Russian prison, where he was serving a decades-long sentence for charges including extremism.
Sullivan described Navalny's death as a "terrible tragedy" in an interview with Steve Inskeep the host of Morning Edition on the National Public Radio (NPR) network.
"Given the Russian government's long and sordid history of doing harm to its opponents, it raises real and obvious questions about what happened here," he added. (end)
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