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narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> hello. you are watching the context on bbc news. >> three days ago, vladimir putin killed my husband, alexei navalny. putin killed the father of my children. putin took away the dearest thing i had shared >> you could sense in the eight minutes the anger, the fury and the hatred for those people she believes killed her husband. >> the memory of alexei navalny. as you know, he was slowly murdered in a russian jail by

putin's regime. >> alexei navalny was never silent, not even from prison. he continued his fight against putin and russia's authoritarian regime. ♪ >> just days after her husband's death, the widow of russian opposition leader alexei navalny has vowed to continue his fight. in a youtube video, she called him his supporters to stand with her. she blames president putin for her husband's death. mr. navalny's body has yet to be released from his family. will be speaking to one of the doctors who was treated by him after -- we will have a special interview with a member of the group pussy

riot. they joined protests in the wake of alexei navalny's death. a developing story is become online. the houthis say two american ships have been targeted in the gulf of aden. as we were saying, the widow of alexei navalny says her husband was killed because the russian president could not break him. she will continue his work fighting for their country. the 40 seven-year-old died unexpectedly in prison camp on friday. his family still have not been allowed to retrieve his body to try to independently ascertain how he died. with more, here is our russian editor. >> for three days, she has been trying to recover her son body. alexei navalny's mother was told investigators are not ready to release it or even where the body is. a clue perhaps.

caught on cctv in the dead of night near mr. navalny's remote penal colony, a prison convoy heading to a nearby town. just hours after the announcement of his death. it is thought this midnight motorcade may have been transporting his body. alexei navalny was an ambitious politician, sing a brighter future for russia. he once tried to run for president. he ended up in prison. now he is dead. >> in a video statement filmed abroad, his widow accused the kremlin of killing him and vowed to continue his fight to change russia. >> having lled alexei navalny, putin killed have of me come half of my heart and half of my soul. but i still have the other half and that tells me i have no right to give up. i will continue the work of alexei navalny.

continue to fight for our country. >> today, she was in brussels meeting european foreign ministers. for years, she has kept a low profile. now she is vowing to uni opposition to vladimir putin. and the kremlin. what has it been saying about the death of its staunchest critic? very little. president putin has yet to make any public comments about the death of alexei navalny. but today, the kremlin spokesman described accusations that it was the russian leadership that killed him as obnoxious and utterly unacceptable. at this makeshift shrine to alexei navalny, we discovered any of the tributes had been cleared away. and yet muscovites are still coming here to honor the man who called for change but would never live to see it. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. >> later this hour, we will be

speaking to a member of pussy riot, the feminist group who have been vocal critics of president putin. they were listed as foreign agents by the russian government. let's go live to one of the doctors who treated alexei navalny after he nearly died after he was poisoned in 2020. he was also one of a group of russian doctors who signed an open letter urging russia's president vladimir putin to stop abusing alexei navalny. thanks for joining us on bbc news. in the past you have treated alexei navalny and you continued to advise him on a regular basis. i would like to begin by getting your reaction to his death. >> the reaction is i am shocked. the same as all people in russia who believed in alexei navalny and who hoped to see him have freedom.

a big shock for all of us. >> we know that there have been differing accounts so far of the cause of his death. as we have said in 2020, he was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok and you treated him back then. what more can you tell us about novichok and the effects it can have? >> it affects many systems. the worst are cardiac date symptoms. -- are cardiac symptoms. heart rate. and even cardiac arrest if it is used in big dose. it has pulmonary symptoms.

it has a very serious effect. all muscles are affected. it affects respiratory. it can be deadly because it can stop the breathing. >> how badly was mr. navalny impacted by the attempt on his life in 2020 using novichok? what were the long-term impacts of that on him in the aftermath? >> obviously, after the serious poisoning, the most common --

muscle weakness. sometimes it has serious neurological consequences. a worsening of memory. other functions. alexei navalny did not have neurological long-term effects. >> you were one of a number of doctors who signed a letter raising concerns about the government's treatment of alexei navalny. why did you do that? i'm guessing that was a risky thing to do, speak out against the government. >> received some news from the prison, from his lawyers, from his family that his health is worsening.

we saw that our government do nothing to provide him appropriate medical support. there were a lot of doctors who could not see how he is dying. we just tried to do what we could. force our government to start providing medical support. we understood there was some risk. there were a lot of doctors who signed this letter. more than 600 of them. doctors signed. there is personal risk for each of us. >> did it make any difference? >> sorry?

>> get the letter make any difference? did it change anything? >> signed the letter several times. sometimes it changed. sometimes a little bit. sometimes they just ignored it. we just tried to do what we could. a couple times they started to give him some drugs. once they sent him to a hospital. we don't know if they did it without our knowledge or not. >> ok.

thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and joining us on bbc news. as we were saying at the start of the show, alexei navalny's widow has released a video on youtube vowing to continue his fight for a free russia. until friday, she kept more of a low profile. hours after his death, she appeared on stage at the munich security conference in what was a surprising as well as a moving moment. what might we expect from her now? i am joined by a reporter for their spiegel who interviewed her in the past. thanks for joining us on bbc news. i'm sure like many of us you have watched the video on youtube. what are your thoughts about what she said, how she wants to continue her husband's fight? >> i think to be honest, she

does not really know yet. if you have looked at what has happened in the past, she was always asked, when you want to replace your husband and all that? she has been playing with the idea of -- not joining him but replacing him. very -- [crosstalk] we can expect as she will change her approach from exposing corruption in russia which is something alexei navalny has done with great pleasure. and going towards deliverables. get western governments to enforce sanctions against putin's regime. what i have also seen is the radical change from alexei navalny's wife. to a true leader showing up on the world stage. >> how important is that she

continues the work he did. he was inside ssia. >> before you asked me, i think it is unlikely she is going back to russia as he did. but how important is it? look at the remnants of russia's opposition. they are either in jail and a or they are outside. they don't have a figure they can unite around. other than the belarus opposition who has united around the wife of a former presidential candidate, there was no such thing in russia. alexei navalny was there only prominent figure that could be showas an opposition leader and now she has to continue that work or actually really star it because she is free. >> what was your reaction when you saw her suddenly appear at the munich security conference on friday? i was on air at the time.

it was pretty surprising just hours after her husband's death she made that very emotional and moving speech which i think will be able to bring up in a moment. >> police do bring it up. -- please do bring it up. i knew it was going to happen but i was not in munich. i had to look it up afterwards. >> tell us more about her. she stayed away from the spotlight. does she have a past in the anticorruption movement in politics? >> she has stayed much more in the background then you would expect but what you could always see was the right feeling for the right symbolism appear at a protest at the right time. always at the back of but setting these moments. you could see a lot of the courage in the oscar-winning documentary about alexei navalny.

you could see her walking up at the hospital and accusing the russian regime of not being let to her husband who was in severe condition. she has recently joined the board of directors of the navalny foundation. she has moved into that political work already. >> thank you very much for sharing your insights on that story. as i said, i will be speaking to a member of the group pussy riot so do stay with us. around the world and across the u.k., this is a bbc news. let's take aook at some of the other stories making the news. police say the father of a missing two-year-old who fell into a river in leicester yesterday enter the water to try to rescue his son. additional specialist teams have joined the search for the missing boy. emergency services were called to the river late yesterday

afternoon. the berdych museum has turned f comments on one of its social media posts because of a campaign demanding the return of stone monuments to easter island. muum in london has two statues taken from the chilean territory in the 19th century. the statues are hundreds of years old and are said to embody the spirits of prominent ancestors. jr. doctors in northern ireland are to go on strike next month overpay. the 24 hour walk out from 8:00 a.m. on the sixth of march is their first strike. the union claims doctors pay has been eroded over the last 16 years. and with the government is offering is unacceptable. your live with bbc news. now to some developing news from the middle east. iranian becks houthi rebels in yemen claimed they have launched a missile attack on two american

ships in the gulf of aden. a military spokesman says the forces targeted the sea champion and the fortuna. a british merchant vessel attacked by the houthis on sunday had sunk. for more on this developing story, i'm joined by our diplomatic correspondent. this is news that has broken in the last hour. what more can you tell us? >> what is clear is the houthi rebel group based in yemen backed by the iranians are in no way deterred western military action, by the americans or by the british in recent weeks to try to deter these kind of attacks. the houthis have been attacking merchant shipping since november. they have sometimes been successful. sometimes less successful. in the last 24 hours, they have decided to escalate. what we know from the spokesman who has given a statement in the recent hours is they claim they have struck two u.s. cargo ships

in the region, in the gulf of aden. one -- there is a reasonable amount of confirmation. it is greek flag. the greek shipping ministry has confirmed an incident took place. the u.k. maritime authorities have been talking about this incident which took place about 100 nautical miles east of aden. that is one of the american ships. the other american ship, we are less clear about. there is not much information. the bstantive attack took place late last night against a british owned lebanese operated vessel. that is at the small gap of seaway between djibouti and yemen on either side. that took place last night. our understanding as it was a missile attack. british authorities say one missile did strike the stern and caused damage.

the houthis claimed it was catastrophic damage and as a result the vessel has sunk. there is no independent confirmation. what we do have confirmation from the u.k. side is the vessel was damaged. it was taking on water. it has been abandoned and the 24 crew members have been taken off on a tug and landed in djibouti. the vessel is in some dire straits. the houthis site has been sunk but there is no confirmation yet. >> we have been talking about attacks in the red sea since last november. is there anything being done or can be done to escalate this situation -- to de-escalate the situation? >> both sides are willing to keep escalating. the houthis continue making these attacks. at the moment, ever since mid-january, largely u.s. forces have been carrying out fairly

regular strikes on houthi military targets, ammunition dumps, drone launch sites, places like that. it has not deterred the houthis. it seems to have encouraged them. what many western analysts say is the houthis claim support for the palestinians. actually, this is about an opportunist moment for them to assert themselves in the region and boost their domestic position within yemen. they control a large part of yemen. by no means all. this is seen as a strategic opportunity by the houthis. they are not being deterred by any kind of western attacks. it is boosting their support domestically and in the region. >> our diplomatic correspondent with the latest on that developing story. ank you for the moment. back to our main story. they rose to fame after storming

a moscow cathedral in protest against vladimir putin and the orthodox church. they were arrested after storming the 2018 world cup final in russia and in 2021 they were listed as foreign agents by the russian government. now on sunday, members of the feminist group pussy riot protested i give the death of alexei navalny outside the russian embassy in berlin. they were wearing as you can see pink while the club was and holding a banner reading murderers. on friday the group posted a statement which said putin is personally responsible for the death of my friend. navalny, in russia's light and hope and its bravest heart. joining me as one of the members who was at sunday's protest. we see escape russia and is on house arrest after promoting a protest: for the release of mr. navalny. she faces a new criminal case for allegedly spreading they can news about the russian military.

she faces prison if she ever returns to russia. thank you very much for joining us on bbc news. i wanted to start by getting a reaction to the death of mr. navalny. >> thank you. it is actually a horrible shock for us. we did not expect his death because he appeared under a court session two days before. he was looking good and healthy. so we [indiscernible] nobody expected that. >> you have spoken now in support of him in the past. how well did you know him and his wife?

>> in person, i met him once. it was in his subways and which can affect. -- a subway sandwich cafe. he was a part of our lives for the last 15 years. even for those who did not know him in person or even for those who did not support him because heust was there always. we did not expect anything like that. >> what do you make of what we have heard from yia today? she said she is going to continue his fight. >> yes and i think it was [indiscernible]

she did not want to get involved in politics. it was the only true way i think. the only decision for now. four relief. she is a very brave woman. i think she will be a powerful political figuren the future. >> u.n. your group have been vocal critics of blood you and your group have been vocal critics of vladimir putin. you are forced to leave russia. what space if any is left in the country for people to speak out against the government? >> i'm sorry. can you repeat? >> of course. you had to leave russia for speaking out against vladimir putin. what space is left in the country if any for people who want to criticize the

government? >> it is not about protest. you just can't bring flowers to the grave. we can't like when we are abroad -- we don't have like -- we can't make any suggestions to those who stayed there. we don't have moral right to do this. >> why did you decide to join those protests? it is obviously a brave decision to join those protests in the wake of mr. navalny's death. >> i think it is important to participate in protest in europe because -- i think it is

necessary to put pressure on international community and local politics. because they have to stop -- >> sorry to stop narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... brook: these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others everyday. people who know, know bdo.