When Alexei Navalny died on February 16 this year, it was after fainting on a walk and persistent attempts at resuscitation, according to the official death report. It states that Navalny died of a combination of illnesses. Few outside the Kremlin have bought that explanation. Navalny was considered one of Putin’s biggest challengers and among Russia’s most important opposition politicians. He was poisoned in 2020, but survived. When he died, he was serving a sentence in the penal colony IK-3, known as the “Polar Wolf”, in northwest Siberia. In July, an investigative committee concluded that the death did not appear to be criminal and that further investigation was not necessary. But investigative journalists in the independent Russian newspaper The Insider have obtained documents that tell a different story. The funeral of Alexei Navalny in Moscow on 1 March this year. Photo: AP Two versions of the same event Several of the documents relating to Navalny’s death must have two versions. The Insider found that out when they read through hundreds of such documents. Both versions are signed by the investigator Aleksander Varapaev. The first version of the death goes like this: Navalny suddenly fell ill when he was on a trip in the air force. He was taken to another part of the penal colony where he collapsed and complained of intense stomach pains. He broke down and threw up, had convulsions and lost consciousness. A doctor decided to admit Navalny to a medical ward and call an ambulance. Two doctors then performed CPR on Navalny. This gave no result. Facts about Alexei Navalny Russian regime critic and blog with millions of followers on Twitter and Youtube. Born in 1976. Educated as a lawyer. Married and father of two. In 2007, started an anti-corruption campaign by buying into state-controlled companies in order to be able to ask critical questions at the general meetings. Has organized a number of demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin. Excluded from the liberal party Jabloko in 2008, where he had been active since 2000, for damaging the party with his nationalist tendencies. Leader of the small Partija Progressa – the Progress Party – since its creation in 2013. Received 27 percent of the vote in the mayoral election in Moscow in September 2013. Has been arrested and convicted of embezzlement and money laundering, charges he himself claims were politically motivated. He has also been arrested and convicted for taking part in illegal demonstrations several times. On 20 August 2020, he became acutely ill on a passenger plane en route from Siberia to Moscow. Two days later, he was evacuated to Berlin after strong Western pressure. Tests have shown that he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. On 17 January 2021, Navalny was arrested when he returned to Russia. He was sentenced in February 2021 to serve 2.5 years in a labor camp for breaching the reporting obligation following a conditional sentence from 2014. On 16 February 2024, the prison authorities in the Yamal-Nenets region, where Navalny is imprisoned, announced that he had died. They state that he lost consciousness after a walk and died. (Source: NTB, news) The symptoms described here are consistent with symptoms of poisoning, according to medical experts The Insider has spoken to. But in a later, and final, version of the same event, everything about stomach pain, vomiting and cramps has been removed. Apart from that, the sequence of events is largely the same. The underlined red line shows the same event, but in two different versions. This is version number one of the document, signed Alexander Varapaev. Photo: Published by The Insider Version two of Navalny’s cause of death. Photo: The Insider Russian authorities have also rejected accusations that Navalny was killed, The Guardian has previously mentioned. The Insider has also obtained a document with an overview of objects that have been removed from the place where Navalny died. Among the objects are “samples of vomit”, which, according to the document, must have been taken away to be examined. But there are no official reports that mention any vomiting. The list shows objects that were removed from the scene of Navalny’s death. The picture of the list has been published by The Insider. Photo: Published by The Insider / Published by The Insider – Trustworthy Inna Sangadzhieva is herself from Russia. For almost 20 years, she has worked with freedom of expression and human rights in the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. She believes the information that Navalny had symptoms consistent with poisoning is credible. – I have always assumed that this was a murder. Several people from the Russian opposition have been saying that all along, says Sangadzhieva to news. Inna Sangadzhieva believes Navalny was killed in prison. Photo: The Norwegian Helsinki Committee – By first arresting him and subjecting him to various forms of torture, and then placing him in a very strict prison in a distant place, the authorities made it more difficult for his supporters to react quickly. Will unite the opposition Navalny’s death has in the short term united the opposition. There are always fresh flowers on graves in Moscow. But there are also those who doubt that he was killed, and who harbor suspicions that sources are being manipulated. Navalny’s supporters had turned up at his grave on June 4 this year, which would have been Navalny’s 48th birthday. Photo: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP Last week, Sangadzhieva attended a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, where several of the Russian opposition figures who were exchanged for Russian agents in August were present. Among them were journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, opposition politician Ilya Yashin and activist Andrey Pivovarov. – They are now tempted to distance themselves from all internal quarrels in the opposition, says Sangadzhieva. – Together they will help to strengthen the forces against Putin. His Russia is not their Russia. Ilya Yashin (from left), Andrey Pivovarov and Vladimir Kara-Murza come to a press conference in Bonn, Germany, on August 2, the day after they were released in the prisoner exchange with Russia. Photo: Michael Probst / AP On September 12, a trial began against three of Navalny’s former lawyers. They are accused of being members of what the authorities call an extremist organisation. After Navalny’s death, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, became a figurehead for the opposition. She does not live in Russia, but was wanted in July and was seen on Russia’s terrorist list. Julija Navalnaja spoke in Oslo City Hall in connection with the Oslo Freedom Forum in June this year. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB Lost courage Julia Petrova is a young, Russian freelance journalist who sympathizes with Navalny’s anti-corruption movement. news met her in connection with the presidential election in March. She showed up at the polling station where Navalny would have voted, if he had been alive. – Many opposition members suffered a moral setback when Navalny died. Many left Russia in the weeks afterwards, says Petrova to news. Julia Petrova decided to stay in Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Privat She was present at several court hearings where Navalny participated via video link from prison. She also thinks he was poisoned. He himself said that he thought it could happen. Before Navalny died, there were rumors that he could be released and be allowed to go abroad in a prisoner exchange. But Petrova does not think that Putin would actually allow something like this. It was just part of a rumor that the Kremlin was probably behind, she believes. Alexei Navalny was sentenced to serve time in the penal colony IK-3 in Kharp in the far north of Russia. Photo: ANTONINA FAVORSKAYA / AFP Petrova works freelance writing critical articles for those who dare to publish. She speaks several languages and had entered the diplomatic school at the Moscow State Institute for International Policy (MGIMO). But Russia’s large-scale war against Ukraine made Petrova change her mind. – Some have to stay. I have no intention of leaving. Maybe one day I can get a job in an international organization in Africa or the Middle East, she says. Putin made the clearest nuclear threat to date. Is it serious? Published 30.09.2024, at 17.53
ttn-69
Alexei Navalny died of poisoning, according to Russian grave newspaper – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
