Aleksey Navalny Poisoned, Widow Claims Based on New Tests

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Aleksey Navalny Poisoned, Widow Claims Based on New Tests
Photo: Petr David Josek/AP/TT

Aleksej Navalnyj was killed with poison, according to his widow Julia Navalnaja. Biological samples are said to have shown this, over a year and a half after the Russian opposition leader was declared dead in an Arctic penal colony.

In some way, "biological material" has been smuggled out of Russia and tested, according to what the widow and politician Navalnaja announces in social media. The material is said to have been taken from Navalnyj's remains before they were buried in southern Moscow.

Laboratories in two countries came to the conclusion that Aleksej was murdered. Specifically: poisoned, she says in a published video clip.

Julia Navalnaja does not go into more detail about the samples or the results, but urges the two labs to make everything public and tell which poison was used.

Had happened before

Aleksej Navalnyj was for years one of President Vladimir Putin's more prominent critics, both as an opposition leader outside Russia's controlled political system and as the leader of a movement that exposed the power elite's widespread corruption. He got hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets to demonstrate against the abuse of power and the country's increasingly autocratic rule.

In August 2020, Navalnyj became acutely ill during a flight from Siberia. He was treated for a long time in Germany and it was found that he had been poisoned with the nerve agent novichok. After recovering, the politician returned home to Russia in January 2021. He was arrested immediately and later convicted in trials that are generally considered to be political show trials.

Navalnyj was being held in a penal colony in the Arctic Ural Mountains when it was announced in February 2024 that he was dead. He was said to have collapsed during a walk outdoors and according to the authorities, this was due to a combined illness.

Refers to witnesses

Julia Navalnaja has all the time accused President Vladimir Putin of having had her husband murdered. The Kremlin denies this.

In addition to the new tests, she claims that there are witness statements from within the prison that her husband convulsed in his cell before he died, as well as images showing that he had vomited in there.

The authorities delayed for several days to hand over Aleksej Navalnyj's remains. Some experts have pointed out that symptoms suggested possible poisoning.

Julia Navalnaja has urged continued struggle for a free and peaceful Russia from her exile in Germany, while criticism of the regime at home has been almost completely silenced.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers

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