The exiled widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said "nobody knows" what to expect from Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned that the revanchist Kremlin leader could use nuclear weapons if he felt the need.
Yulia Navalnaya, who promised to maintain pressure on Putin after the death of her husband in a Russian prison in February, when asked by the news agency DPA - whether she thinks the Russian leader will give up the use of nuclear weapons - replied that "we don't know what to expect from him (Putin)".
"He probably would," she said.
Navalnya used the recent espionage scandals and arrests in Germany and Poland to argue the position that Putin has been waging war in the heart of Europe for years.
"Putin hasn't just started," she said. "He does it all the time."
Alexei Navalny, 47, died on February 16 under unclear circumstances in a prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism and other charges considered politically motivated.
His death is being called a murder by Navalny and his supporters despite the official death certificate stating that Navalny died of natural causes.
US President Joseph Biden and other Western leaders accused Moscow of killing its most frequent domestic critic, who survived multiple poisonings he blamed on Putin.
On April 9, investigators in Russia's Yamal-Skonenet Autonomous District extended the deadline for a preliminary investigation into Navalny's death until at least April 20.
Navalny began writing his memoirs four years ago, which will go on sale later this year. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf says it is Navalny's "last letter to the world."
But his wife Yulia, who lives in exile with their children, is calling on the world to withdraw Putin's recognition as Russia's "legitimate" president and has vowed to continue efforts to oust him.
Putin was declared the winner of the presidential election with 87 percent of the vote and thus began his fifth term. Russian authorities have disqualified his only serious opponent from the race.
Referring to the unpredictability of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Navalnya says it is impossible to know where Putin might strike next.
"He scares people, keeps them in fear. No one knows what Putin will do next," she points out.
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