World

Navalnaya tells MEPs to 'stop being boring' to defeat Putin's regime

Published

2 years ago

February 28, 2024

Navalnaya tells MEPs to 'stop being boring' to defeat Putin's regime

The European Parliament needs to “stop being boring” if it wants to stand up to Vladimir Putin, Yulia Navalnaya told the hemicycle on Wednesday.

“If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator. You have to stop being boring,” Navalnaya said in a speech to lawmakers in Strasbourg.

“You cannot hurt Putin with another resolution or another set of sanctions that is no different to the last one,” she added.

“You cannot defeat him by thinking he is a man of principle who has morals and rules. He is not like that. and Alexei realised that a long time ago. You are not dealing with a politician, but with a bloody monster.”

Her speech, interrupted several times by applause, came less than two weeks after her husband Alexei Navalny, considered Putin’s fiercest political foe, died in an Arctic penal colony following years of persecution at the hands of the Kremlin.

The exact circumstances of his passing remain unclear. The EU has directly pinned responsibility for his death on Putin’s regime.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bloc has imposed thirteen packages of sanctions aimed at suffocating Russia’s ability to modernise its economy and cutting access to critical goods used on the battlefield in Ukraine.

High Representative Josep Borrell has vowed to rename the EU’s human rights sanctions regime in Navalny’s honour.

But Navalnaya said the EU needs less symbolism and more targeted investigations focused on Putin’s friends and associates, warning that Putin was continuing to hide money – and power – in EU capitals through organised crime networks.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation, the NGO that Navalny founded, has compiled a list of thousands of Russian officials, oligarchs and propagandists considered Putin’s “bribetakers and warmongers,” many of whom remain spared from Western sanctions.

The widow and activist also pleaded with MEPs not to give in to war fatigue or advocate for peace negotiations with the Russian President.

“There is much exhaustion, much blood, much disappointment, and Putin has gone nowhere,” she explained, adding that the “public murder” of her husband has shown that Putin is “capable of anything” and that “you cannot negotiate with him.”

Russia’s war has had a seismic effect across the continent, sparking a revival of the NATO military alliance and forcing the EU to reignite its dormant enlargement policy to prepare Ukraine’s path to membership,

But scepticism among some political camps about the bloc’s financial and military support to Kyiv, coupled with a faltering Ukrainian counter-offensive, means Brussels is under pressure to do more to show its commitment to Ukraine’s victory.

The prospective return of Donald Trump to the White House means the bloc is gearing up to bolster its defence capacities to back Ukraine without its trans-Atlantic partner.

‘Work with us’

Alexei Navalny was 47 when he died in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. His death has dealt a blow to pro-democracy Russians, an estimated 400 of whom were detained for laying flowers and lighting candles in his memory in Russian cities.

Associates of Navalny have claimed Putin ordered his assassination just days before a planned prisoner swap, which would have seen him and two US citizens exchanged for Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian assassin serving a life sentence in Germany.

The EU, which has long saluted Navalny’s unwavering fight for Russian democracy, repeatedly denounced Putin’s regime for its systemic repression of government critics in the years prior to the invasion of Ukraine.

But the critic’s death has shed light on the futility of those efforts, as Putin has continued to deepen his autocracy.

Navalnaya told the hemicycle that there are “tens of millions” of Russians who oppose the Kremlin but who are unable to express their resistance due to fear.

“We must not persecute them,” she said. “On the contrary, you must work with them, with us.”

Navalnaya has vowed to continue her husband’s crusade and become the new face of Russia’s stifled opposition, galvanising pro-democracy Russians to stand up to the regime.

“Putin must answer for what he has done to a neighbouring peaceful country, and Putin must answer for everything he has done to Alexei. My husband will never see what the beautiful Russia of the future will look like. But we must see it, and I will do,” she told the Parliament.

“I will do my best to make his (Alexei’s) dream come true. The evil will fall and the beautiful future will come,” she added.

The Parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, said that the “hope” Alexei represented remains “as bright as ever.”

“The pillars of autocracy always crumble under the weight of its own corruption and people’s desire to live freely,” Metsola said.

Navalnaya confirmed that her husband’s funeral is due to take place in Moscow’s southeast Maryino district on Friday afternoon. She is unsure whether the funeral will be peaceful, or whether Russian police will be present to detain the mourners, she said.

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World

Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war

Published

1 hour ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war

From being just a fringe risk, conflict in the Middle East has become a top worry for investors unsettled by the prospect of a power struggle in Iran and a protracted regional war, with ramifications for everything from global trade to inflation.

World

Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’

Published

2 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’

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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.

“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.

Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”

“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”

Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.

As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.

According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.

Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.

The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.

TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ

People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.

“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.

“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.

EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME

Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)

Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.

Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.

“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.

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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.

“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

World

Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM

Published

3 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM

Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.

As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.

EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.

Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.

“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”

On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.

“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.

“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”

Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”

“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.

When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”

On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.

Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.

“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.

Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET