KILLED BY 'NOUCHOK'

ALEXEI Navalny's devastated widow has accused the Kremlin of poisoning her husband with Novichok and vowed to carry on his fight to overthrow Vladimir Putin's brutal regime in Russia.

- CHRIS HUGHES

In her video post, Yulia Navalnaya blamed the Russian president for her husband's killing and referred to his earlier poisoning with Novichok.

Officials had earlier refused to let Navalny's mother see her son's body.

Yulia said: "They are cowardly... hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably while waiting for the trace of another of Putin's Novichok to disappear."

Russian investigators later said they would keep the body for 14 days to do a "chemical examination".

Yulia, who met EU leaders in Brussels yesterday, vowed to continue Navalny's work. She said: "I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia. She implored Russians to share her "endless pain" and "rage".

She said: "Rage, anger, hatred for those who dared to kill our future.