Imprisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny alleged Tuesday that Russian troops in Ukraine killed a civilian simply because the two shared a surname.
The body of Ilya Navalny, 60, found in Bucha outside Kyiv, was allegedly among the more than 400 bodies left behind in the wake of Russia’s retreat from the Ukrainian north last month.
The Kremlin critic posted a photo of the elder Navalny’s passport to Twitter on Tuesday, saying it was found next to a body in Bucha.
“Everything indicates that they killed him because of his last name. That’s why his passport was defiantly thrown nearby,” Navalny wrote.
“A completely innocent person was killed by Putin’s executioners (what else can I call them? definitely not ‘Russian soldiers’) because he is my namesake,” he added. “Apparently, they hoped he was a relative of mine.”
Navalny’s claims could not be independently verified.
The 45-year-old dissident is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s best-known detractors.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison last month on charges of embezzlement and contempt, which his supporters say were trumped up to derail his ambitions as an opposition politician.
Navalny also survived a 2020 nerve agent attack with Novichok, a Soviet-era poison — which the Kremlin denies happened.
Navalny’s “Russia of the Future” opposition party was shut down after Moscow officially labeled it an “extremist” movement.
With Post wires