WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday said he was “not surprised” but “outraged” after the reported death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“He bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence and all the bad things the Putin government was doing,” Biden said at the White House of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
The White House was seeking more information about Navalny’s death at a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, where he was dispatched less than two months ago.
The development has put a further chill into already bitter US-Russian relations.
The 47-year-old Navalny had been a leading critic of Putin, and Biden had said after meeting Putin in Geneva in June 2021 that Nalvany’s death would risk devastating consequences for Putin.
Biden and Putin remain deeply at odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, and Biden is urging Republican hard-liners in the US Congress to support additional funding to pay for more weaponry for Ukraine’s military.
Russia has figured prominently on the campaign trail as Biden seeks reelection in November.
His expected Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, triggered bipartisan outrage last week by saying he would do nothing to defend NATO allies from Russia unless they paid a greater share for the common defenses.
The top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has not put a Senate bill for new funding for Ukraine up to a vote. After Navalny’s death, he said the US and its allies should use “every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states.”
In Munich for a major security conference, Vice President Kamala Harris vowed that the US would never retreat from its NATO alliance obligations put in place after World War Two, contrasting Biden’s approach to global engagement with presidential election hopeful Trump’s isolationist views.
She also met with Alexei Navalny’s wife Yulia on the margins of the conference and “expressed her sorrow and outrage” over reports of her husband’s death, a White House official said.
Biden’s presidential reelection campaign on Friday released a new minute-long advertisement blasting Trump for abandoning NATO. They planned to target the ad to 2.5 million American voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania who trace their ancestry to the NATO states bordering Russia.
![]()
Biden says Putin responsible for Navalny’s death
Short Url
https://arab.news/98bjh
Biden says Putin responsible for Navalny’s death
- “He bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence and all the bad things the Putin government was doing,” Biden said
- The development has put a further chill into already bitter US-Russian relations
Nigerian villagers are rattled by US airstrikes that made their homes shake and the sky glow red
JABO: Sanusi Madabo, a 40-year-old farmer in the Nigerian village of Jabo, was preparing for bed on Thursday night when he heard a loud noise that sounded like a plane crashing. He rushed outside his mud house with his wife to see the sky glowing a bright red.
The light burned bright for hours, Madabo said: “It was almost like daytime.”
He did not learn until later that he had witnessed a USattack on an alleged camp of the militant Daesh group.
US President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the United States had launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against Daesh militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has since confirmed that it cooperated with the US government in its strike.
A panicked village
Nigerian government spokesperson Mohammed Idris said Friday that the strikes were launched from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after midnight and involved “16 GPS-guided precision” missiles and also MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Idris said the strikes targeted areas used as “staging grounds by foreign” Daesh fighters who had sneaked into Nigeria from the Sahel, the southern fringe of Africa’s vast Sahara Desert. The government did not release any casualty figures among the militants.
Residents of Jabo, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto, spoke to The Associated Press on Friday about panic and confusion among the villagers following the strikes, which they said hit not far from Jabo’s outskirts. There were no casualties among the villagers.
They said that Jabo has never been attacked as part of the violence the US says is widespread — though such attacks regularly occur in neighboring villages.
Abubakar Sani, who lives on the edge of the village, recalled the “intense heat” as the strikes hit.
“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told the AP.
“The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens,” he added. “We have never experienced anything like this before.”
It’s a ‘new phase of an old conflict’
The strikes are the outcome of a months long tense diplomatic clash between the West African nation and the US
The Trump administration has said Nigeria is experiencing a genocide of Christians, a claim the Nigerian government has rejected.
However, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now said the strikes resulted from intelligence sharing and strategic coordination between the two governments.
Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, called the airstrikes a “new phase of an old conflict” and said he expected more strikes to follow.
“For us, it is something that has been ongoing,” Tuggar added, referring to attacks that have targeted Christians and Muslims in Nigeria for years.
Bulama Bukarti, a security analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, said the residents’ fear is compounded by a lack of information.
Nigerian security forces have since cordoned off the area of the strikes and access was not allowed.
Bukarti said transparency would go a long way to calm the local residents. “The more opaque the governments are, the more panic there will be on the ground, and that is what will escalate tensions.”
Foreign fighters operate in Nigeria
Analysts say the strikes might have been intended for the Lakurawa group, a relatively new entrant to Nigeria’s complex security crisis.
The group’s first attack was recorded around 2018 in the northwestern region before the Nigerian government officially announced its presence last year. The composition of the group has been documented by security researchers as primarily consisting of foreigners from the Sahel.
However, experts say ties between the Lakurawa group and Daesh are unproven. The Islamic State West African Province — a Daesh affiliate in Nigeria — has its strongholds in the northeastern part of the country, where it is currently involved in a power struggle with its parent organization, Boko Haram.
“What might have happened is that, working with the American government, Nigeria identified Lakurawa as a threat and identified camps that belong to the group,” Bukarti said.
Still, some local people feel vulnerable.
Aliyu Garba, a Jabo village leader, told the AP that debris left after the strikes was scattered, and that residents had rushed to the scene. Some picked up pieces of the debris, hoping for valuable metal to trade, and Garba said he fears they could get hurt.
The strikes rattled 17-year-old Balira Sa’idu, who has been preparing for her upcoming marriage.
“I am supposed to be thinking about my wedding, but right now I am panicking,” she said. “The strike has changed everything. My family is afraid, and I don’t even know if it is safe to continue with the wedding plan in Jabo.”
The light burned bright for hours, Madabo said: “It was almost like daytime.”
He did not learn until later that he had witnessed a USattack on an alleged camp of the militant Daesh group.
US President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the United States had launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against Daesh militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has since confirmed that it cooperated with the US government in its strike.
A panicked village
Nigerian government spokesperson Mohammed Idris said Friday that the strikes were launched from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after midnight and involved “16 GPS-guided precision” missiles and also MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Idris said the strikes targeted areas used as “staging grounds by foreign” Daesh fighters who had sneaked into Nigeria from the Sahel, the southern fringe of Africa’s vast Sahara Desert. The government did not release any casualty figures among the militants.
Residents of Jabo, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto, spoke to The Associated Press on Friday about panic and confusion among the villagers following the strikes, which they said hit not far from Jabo’s outskirts. There were no casualties among the villagers.
They said that Jabo has never been attacked as part of the violence the US says is widespread — though such attacks regularly occur in neighboring villages.
Abubakar Sani, who lives on the edge of the village, recalled the “intense heat” as the strikes hit.
“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told the AP.
“The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens,” he added. “We have never experienced anything like this before.”
It’s a ‘new phase of an old conflict’
The strikes are the outcome of a months long tense diplomatic clash between the West African nation and the US
The Trump administration has said Nigeria is experiencing a genocide of Christians, a claim the Nigerian government has rejected.
However, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now said the strikes resulted from intelligence sharing and strategic coordination between the two governments.
Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, called the airstrikes a “new phase of an old conflict” and said he expected more strikes to follow.
“For us, it is something that has been ongoing,” Tuggar added, referring to attacks that have targeted Christians and Muslims in Nigeria for years.
Bulama Bukarti, a security analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, said the residents’ fear is compounded by a lack of information.
Nigerian security forces have since cordoned off the area of the strikes and access was not allowed.
Bukarti said transparency would go a long way to calm the local residents. “The more opaque the governments are, the more panic there will be on the ground, and that is what will escalate tensions.”
Foreign fighters operate in Nigeria
Analysts say the strikes might have been intended for the Lakurawa group, a relatively new entrant to Nigeria’s complex security crisis.
The group’s first attack was recorded around 2018 in the northwestern region before the Nigerian government officially announced its presence last year. The composition of the group has been documented by security researchers as primarily consisting of foreigners from the Sahel.
However, experts say ties between the Lakurawa group and Daesh are unproven. The Islamic State West African Province — a Daesh affiliate in Nigeria — has its strongholds in the northeastern part of the country, where it is currently involved in a power struggle with its parent organization, Boko Haram.
“What might have happened is that, working with the American government, Nigeria identified Lakurawa as a threat and identified camps that belong to the group,” Bukarti said.
Still, some local people feel vulnerable.
Aliyu Garba, a Jabo village leader, told the AP that debris left after the strikes was scattered, and that residents had rushed to the scene. Some picked up pieces of the debris, hoping for valuable metal to trade, and Garba said he fears they could get hurt.
The strikes rattled 17-year-old Balira Sa’idu, who has been preparing for her upcoming marriage.
“I am supposed to be thinking about my wedding, but right now I am panicking,” she said. “The strike has changed everything. My family is afraid, and I don’t even know if it is safe to continue with the wedding plan in Jabo.”
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.