Blinken says Navalny death shows ‘weakness’ at heart of Putin’s Russia

Alexei Navalny’s death shows the “weakness and rot at the heart” of the system Vladimir Putin has built, Antony Blinken has said.

The Russian president’s fiercest critic died in jail at the age of 47, the Siberian prison service announced on Friday 16 February.

World leaders, including the US secretary of state, reacted with outrage to the news.

Mr Blinken added that he and other US officials would be “talking to the many other countries concerned about Alexei Navalny, especially if these reports turn out to be true”.