Alexei Navalny was poisoned earlier than dying in Russian jail, his widow says, citing lab checks

The widow of Alexei Navalny mentioned Wednesday that two unbiased labs have discovered that her husband was poisoned shortly earlier than his demise in a Russian jail.

Navalny, who crusaded in opposition to official corruption and staged huge anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died within the Arctic penal colony in February 2024. He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed was politically motivated.

Authorities mentioned the politician grew to become ailing after a stroll however have in any other case given few particulars on his demise. He was 47.

In a video launched Wednesday, Yulia Navalnaya mentioned organic samples from Navalny’s physique had been taken out of Russia and examined at two laboratories overseas. She mentioned each laboratories concluded that Navalny had been poisoned, however had not launched their findings resulting from “political issues.” She didn’t present proof or elaborate on what the alleged poison was.

“These labs in two completely different nations reached the identical conclusion: Alexei was killed. Extra particularly, he was poisoned,” Navalnaya mentioned within the video, which was posted on social media. Within the clip, she questioned the shortage of video footage from the jail and confirmed photos presupposed to be of Navalny’s cell on the day of his demise exhibiting vomit on the ground. She didn’t present direct proof that Navalny had been poisoned or that it had been carried out by jail authorities.

“I demand that the laboratories that carried out the analysis publish their outcomes,” she mentioned. “Cease appeasing Putin for some increased ‘issues.’ You can’t placate him. When you keep silent, he doesn’t cease,” Navalnaya mentioned.

Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for Navalny’s demise, one thing Russian officers have vehemently denied.

In a press convention Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov mentioned he was not conscious of Navalnaya’s assertion and mentioned that he couldn’t remark.

Navalnaya mentioned in August 2024 that she was advised by Russian investigators that Navalny died from a mix of “a dozen completely different illnesses” and that he lastly succumbed to arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.

Navalnaya disputed Russian officers’ model of occasions and mentioned her husband exhibited no cases of coronary heart illness whereas alive.

Navalny beforehand suffered from one other poisoning in 2020, when the opposition chief fell sick on an inner flight in Russia. He was flown to Berlin whereas nonetheless in a coma for remedy two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and checks by the Group for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was uncovered to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have denied any involvement within the incident, a declare that Navalny challenged as false.

Whereas behind bars, Navalny accomplished a memoir, documenting his three-year battle to outlive the cruel jail situations. Final summer season, a Russian courtroom issued an arrest warrant for his spouse. She advised “60 Minutes” that the memoir, “Patriot,” represents his ultimate act of defiance.

“It was his life. It was his every-minute job to battle with Putin’s regime,” Yulia Navalnaya advised correspondent Lesley Stahl. “I would like he would battle not from the grave.”