President Biden meets Alexei Navalny's widow Yulia and daughter Dasha Navalnaya

President Joe Biden conducted a private meeting with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya, the widow and daughter of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who recently passed away in an Arctic prison, BBC reported.

Following the meeting in California, President Biden expressed that Navalny's "legacy of courage will live on" through his family.

Alexei Navalny, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died suddenly while on a walk, as reported by the prison service. However, Navalnaya believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated her husband's demise.

Several world leaders, paralleling the sentiments of Navalnaya, have directly implicated Putin in Navalny's death. The meeting with the Navalny family occurred concurrently with the United States gearing up to announce a substantial set of sanctions against Russia.

Photographs released by the White House depicted President Biden embracing Yulia and engaging in conversation with both her and Dasha in a San Francisco hotel room. Post-meeting, Biden informed reporters that Ms Navalnaya is determined to persist in the fight, emphasising her unwavering resolve.

The upcoming sanctions, targeting around 600 individuals and companies, represent the most significant set of measures since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. The White House asserted that these sanctions were a direct response to the events surrounding Navalny's death.

While the Kremlin has refuted accusations of Navalny's murder in prison, dismissing the Western reaction as "hysterical," Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, voiced concerns on YouTube about threats from authorities regarding her son's burial. 

Allegedly pressured to agree to a secret funeral, she claimed that authorities warned of unspecified actions if she did not comply. Russian officials have not yet responded to these allegations.